Man Convicted of Murdering Second Woman in Koreatown

One day after being convicted of killing a woman who lived in his Los Angeles apartment building, a man was found guilty today of murdering another neighbor.

The Los Angeles Superior Court jury found Victor Alvarez, 58, guilty of first-degree murder for the stabbing and beating death of Cordelia Ferguson, 67, who was found dead on Aug. 16, 1982, in her fourth-floor apartment in the 3300 block of West Fourth Street.

On Wednesday, jurors convicted Alvarez of first-degree murder for the stabbing and beating death of Hazel Hughes, 63, who lived in a first-floor unit. She was found dead about 12 hours after Ferguson's body was discovered.

Jurors also found true the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder during the commission of a sodomy involving Hughes. Jurors rejected a special circumstance alleging that Ferguson was killed during the commission of a burglary.

Alvarez -- who lived in a third-floor apartment in the building where the women were killed -- was arrested in October 2009 in New York City after a DNA sample obtained from him matched a partial DNA profile obtained from Hughes' body.

Alvarez is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to Deputy District Attorney Martha Carrillo. Sentencing is scheduled June 26 before Judge Craig Richman.

—City News Service