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CNN Saturday Morning News

Avila Expected to Be Charged With Rape/Murder of Runnion

Aired July 20, 2002 - 08:03   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Prosecutors in Southern California expected to soon bring charges against Alejandro Avila, the man arrested in the kidnapping and murder of Samantha Runnion and who two years ago was acquitted of molesting two little girls.

For the latest on all this, we head back out to Stanton, California, where CNN's Rusty Dornin is standing by -- Rusty, did the sheriff offer much new information in that interview? I didn't hear much.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, and as you heard, he made no bones about it. He said he is 100 percent convinced that Alejandro Avila is the culprit in this case. He is the man who killed 5-year- old Samantha Runnion.

What's so amazing about that is this man only popped up really as a suspect maybe 12 hours before. He wouldn't comment on what the tips were. He said they had just received several tips. That's when sheriff's deputies did go to the apartment of his mother, where apparently Avila would live during certain times. And they also impounded three cars, one of which also belonged to his mother, one of which was also a light green Thunderbird.

And as you may remember, the description of the killer's car or the kidnapper's car was a green car.

Now, it looks like the investigation, he doesn't want to talk about the details now, what kind of forensic evidence. You can only surmise that perhaps because she was sexually assaulted that there may be some DNA evidence there.

They had said that the suspect was expected to have scratches on his body, which may mean the young girl may have had some kind of skin or something like that underneath her fingernails.

But Carona is remaining mum about the whole thing, only to say that he feels he has plenty to prosecute this case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF MICHAEL CARONA, ORANGE COUNTY CALIFORNIA: Mr. Avila made a lot of mistakes in committing this crime. He made mistakes at the original crime scene of the abduction and he made mistakes at the crime scene in Riverside County. We capitalized on those mistakes. And so I will tell you that we have a tremendous amount of physical evidence that we are still sifting through that will be part of the prosecutor's case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DORNIN: Now, of course, this community will be recovering from this for a long time. You know, short-term relief that someone has been arrested. Of course, great sadness. There is a memorial still in front of the complex where Samantha Runnion lived that just is loaded with cards and flowers and letters of condolence and that sort of thing.

But it is something that long-term, I mean this, it will never be the same again. You know, folks here will never feel safe with their kids playing in their front yard since she was snatched in the middle of the day just playing in front of her house.

Now, the arraignment for Alejandro Avila is expected some time early next week -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: You know, Rusty, I was struck, the sheriff commented on this, as I'm sure you heard, about how, you know, investigators are so focused on getting their man, if you will, and then once that moment of relief passes, he was left with a sense of profound sadness.

I assume this community has got a long road to go yet.

DORNIN: As I said, a long road to go because also the nervousness of, you know, that this could happen again. I mean this community, you know, is Orange County is -- this is where Disneyland is, you know? This is where Knottsbury Farm is. This is where people bring their families to have all American fun. And if people can't feel like their kids can play in the front yard, you know, that's a huge change.

O'BRIEN: All right, CNN's Rusty Dornin in Stanton, California, thank you very much.

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