Girlfriend of victim released from prison this year
LAX COURTHOUSE — Two Santa Monica men charged with the murder of an ex-convict last year will begin their trial next month, court officials said.
Luke David Yeron, 20, and Anthony Gregory Alfaro, 18, were charged with the homicide of Gabriel Becerrada, 38, who was shot multiple times at 1:20 a.m. on Sunday, March 7, 2004, on the third floor of a public housing unit near Ashland Avenue and Lincoln Boulevard in southern Santa Monica.
Becerrada had been recently released from state prison and was on parole when police found his body outside an apartment door. He had been in and out of jail for drugs, guns, burglary and robbery since 1986, according to the California Department of Corrections.
Sandra Alfaro, 35, Becerrada’s girlfriend and mother of Anthony Alfaro, was arrested by Santa Monica police within days of the murder, along with her son and Sandra Alfaro was charged as an accessory to the murder. She has since been credited for an 11-month prison stay and was released on Jan. 31, 2005, after pleading no contest to the accessory charge.
Yeron and Anthony Alfaro remain in police custody and each face one count of first-degree murder, lying in wait and armed with a firearm. Their trial is scheduled to begin on May 11. Although he was a minor at the time of the alleged murder, Anthony Alfaro will be tried as an adult. He also has been accused of discharging the gun, an additional felony, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Yeron is not known to have a criminal record as an adult within Los Angeles County or in the California Department of Corrections. It is not known if Anthony Alfaro has a juvenile criminal record.
Sandra Alfaro has a criminal history that goes back to 1991, when she was convicted of petty theft. In 1996, she was convicted of welfare fraud. In 1999, she was convicted of petty theft, according to court documents. In 2001, she was convicted of reckless driving.
Some residents living in neighborhoods near the public housing units have questioned why tenants with criminal records would be allowed to occupy the city’s public housing.
Joan Ling, executive director of the Community Corporation of Santa Monica — the non-profit group which supports 1,200 Santa Monica public housing units and the landlord of Alfaro’s apartment — said prospective tenant candidates aren’t screened for criminal records.
“If you do a criminal check and find out someone has committed a felony and has paid a debt to society, are you going to tell that person for the rest of his life he can’t get housing?”
Ling said it also may be illegal to discriminate against ex-convicts, referring to such legislation as Megan’s Law, which she said prohibits landlords to screen out known sex offenders.
“As long as they meet the household size and income requirements, you have to treat them like any other applicant,” Ling said.
According to Ling, Sandra Alfaro is no longer a resident at the public housing unit on the 800 block of Ashland Avenue. She said if Sandra Alfaro were to re-apply for public housing, she would be considered within the criteria of any other candidate.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 13, 2005. Read the original PDF.