Convicted Palm Desert Killer Prison Bound After Lengthy Sanity Investigation

PALM DESERT, CA — A 39-year-old man who beat and stabbed a senior to death as she stood in the laundry room of a Palm Desert apartment complex, targeted because of the defendant's unexplained hostility and paranoia, was bound for state prison Thursday to serve a sentence of 25 years to life behind bars.

Ryan C. Alkana pleaded guilty in 2023 to first-degree murder and a sentence-enhancing weapon allegation in the deadly assault on 77-year-old Mary Louise Brown. Disposition of the case was held up for several years because of Alkana's contention that he was insane.

A bench trial in October before Riverside County Superior Court Judge James Hawkins, which involved calling on mental health specialists and others as witnesses, determined the defendant's claims were invalid.

At the Larson Justice Center in Indio Tuesday, Hawkins imposed the state-mandated term of imprisonment on Alkana. The judge suspended sentence on an additional one-year term, stemming from the weapon allegation.

On Thursday, Alkana's defense team filed a notice of appeal of the court's findings, though the specific grounds for the motion weren't immediately clear. The appellate process can run a decade or more in California, while defendants are incarcerated.

According to a sentencing brief filed by the District Attorney's Office, Alkana's parents, Gary and Laura Alkana, managed an apartment building in the 74300 block of Candlewood Street, near Panorama Drive, where the defendant was permitted to stay.

In January 2019, Brown and at least one other resident, Laura Olson, began noticing that Alkana was exhibiting strange behavior, walking on the roof without explanation, trying to open locked doors late at night and doing other "increasingly bizarre" things they found worrying, the brief said.

The women were planning to express their concerns to Aldana's parents, but before they could, Brown was attacked, prosecutors said.

The assault happened on the afternoon of Jan. 31, 2019, when the victim went to the building's laundry room on the first floor.

By Alkana's own admission, he confronted the woman, whom he knew to be a resident, and demanded to see her keys to the laundry space, which she refused to do, angering him, according to the brief.

He later told sheriff's detectives that he initially karate chopped her shoulder.

"She's an old lady, and I'm 32 years old and this strong," he said during questioning hours after the attack. "I mean, I hit her and BOOM -- she stayed up."

The defendant said he held back nothing in the ensuing brutalization of the woman.

"She was taking brutal hits to the face and still taking it," he told detectives. "(I hit her) anywhere from 20 to 40 to 50 times, repeatedly."

Court papers said he admitted having a carabiner, a large metal device for carrying numerous keys, that he had wrapped a towel around prior to the encounter with Brown, on whom he used it "because I'm not going to break my hand punching someone."

He told detectives he had removed the keys beforehand, because having those on the carabiner "would've made it a deadly weapon."

He specifically used the terms "horrible and gruesome" to describe the assault he perpetrated, according to the brief.

He was never clear on exactly why he targeted the senior, saying only "obviously she (expletive) deserved it, but I know she didn't deserve it like that. I only wanted to push her down and lock her in (the laundry room)," according to the narrative.

Afterward, he smoked a cigarette outside his family's apartment, where Olson passed him on her way to do laundry. When she reached the security gate leading into the space, she saw her neighbor on the floor, bleeding profusely, prompting her to call 911, the prosecution said.

Brown was taken to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, where she lingered comatose for almost three weeks before succumbing to her wounds. An autopsy indicated brain damage from the attack, along with seven stab wounds, a broken eye socket and massive blunt force trauma all about the head and face. She suffered complete organ failure soon after being hospitalized.

Alkana was taken into custody without incident on the day of the attack.

He had no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.