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COMPTON -- A 16-year-old Compton girl was convicted today of the first-degree murders of her mother and stepfather in the family’s mobile home in 2011.

Cynthia Alvarez, who was 15 at the time of the slayings, was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder. The jury, which deliberated about three hours before returning a verdict, also found the special circumstances of lying in wait and multiple murders to be true, said Deputy District Attorney Kristin Trutanich.

Alvarez faces 51 years to life in prison when she returns to court June 21 for sentencing before Judge Ricardo Ocampo. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty because of her age at the time of the killing.

A separate trial for 18-year-old Giovanni Gallardo, Alvarez’s boyfriend at the time, begins Monday in Compton. Alvarez and Gallardo, who was 16 at the time of the murders, were both charged with killing Gloria Villalta, 58, and Jose Lara, 51. The couple was killed sometime between Oct. 13 and Oct. 15, 2011.

Trutanich argued the pair attacked and strangled her mother to death shortly after Alvarez’s mother arrived home from work. They hid her body in a storage room and waited for Alvarez’s stepfather to come home. When he arrived, he was beaten with a baseball bat and stabbed 11 times until he died, Trutanich said.

During her trial, Alvarez took the stand in her own defense and admitted that she and Gallardo went shopping for Halloween party supplies while her mother’s body was in the back of the vehicle they were using.

The teens then allegedly loaded both bodies in a car and dumped them in shallow graves in separate areas.

This case was investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Written by – Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office

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