....
Cordova got away with the crime for more than 20 years but at the time of his arrest was serving a prison sentence in Colorado for a sexual assault on a 12-year-old.
Cannie was murdered on Aug. 24, 1979, after her mother left her alone at her San Pablo home to go to a bar that evening. When she returned in the early morning hours, Cannie was missing, and her blood-smeared robe was on the living room floor.
Cannie’s body was discovered under a blanket in the backyard.
A witness, Cannie’s mother’s roommate, later would testify that Cordova was an acquaintance — known for having a methamphetamine addiction — who would occasionally come by the home.
Judge Peter Spinetta, who handed down the death sentence, said at sentencing that Cordova likely coerced his way into the home since there was no sign of forced entry.
“At no point has Mr. Cordova evinced any remorse for the crime, not only denying that he perpetrated it in the face of all-but-conclusive DNA evidence to the contrary, but not even showing any sympathy for what happened to the child,” Spinetta said, according to a Contra Costa Times story on the sentencing.
Before the sentencing, Cordova
said his appeal process will last longer as a death row inmate and that the single cells given to condemned inmates will keep him from mixing with other convicts.
“Death row is a little more safer,” he said at the time, adding that because he has diabetes and hepatitis, he expected to die in prison either way.
The state Supreme Court
unanimously upheld Cordova’s conviction in October 2015.
A 76-year-old man convicted of the rape and murder of an 8-year-old San Pablo girl died Wednesday, authorities said.
www.eastbaytimes.com
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