Prosecutors Won’t Seek Death Penalty in Slaying

VENTURA COUNTY — The state attorney general’s office said Wednesday that it will not seek the death penalty for murder suspect David Alvarez, who is accused of raping and strangling 14-year-old Kali Manley last December.

Instead, prosecutors will attempt to persuade a jury to send the 22-year-old Ojai resident to prison for life without the chance of parole.

After evaluating the evidence, the circumstances surrounding the crime, Alvarez’s criminal history and the likelihood of success in court, state prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty, officials said.

“It was a very difficult decision to make,” said Nathan Barankin, spokesman for the attorney general’s office in Sacramento. “It was a decision based upon very careful consideration . . . of the totality of the circumstances surrounding the crime.”

Alvarez is charged with murder and attempted rape in the December 1998 slaying of Manley, an Oak View resident and Nordhoff High School freshman. She was attacked before dawn Dec. 20 after she left a girlfriend’s house with Alvarez and his friend, Robert Miears.

Miears told authorities that the three of them stopped at a convenience store to buy wine coolers before heading to a trailer in Ojai. Manley and Alvarez went into a back bedroom and were gone by morning, Miears told police.

Manley had been missing for about a week before her body was found in a drain pipe in the rugged hills above Ojai. Alvarez led authorities to the body.