Almost a decade after an 84-year-old retired psychiatrist was found dead in a Carlsbad retirement community, the man convicted of sexually assaulting and killing her was sentenced to 34 years to life in prison.
Alejandro Avalos Fernandez, 34, pleaded guilty in October to first-degree murder and rape in connection with the strangling death of Gladys Conrad and agreed to the sentence. He also pleaded guilty to assault with intent to commit rape, stemming from a 2004 attack on a woman in Los Angeles.
Vista Superior Court Judge Daniel Goldstein sentenced Fernandez according to his plea agreement and ordered him to register as a sex offender for life.Conrad’s daughters, Lily and Natalie Conrad, appeared in court Thursday but did not speak in open court. Instead, a victim impact coordinator from the District Attorney’s Office read aloud from a statement by the two sisters.
“The killing of our mother was a horrible and senseless tragedy which changed the lives of my sister and me forever,” they said, adding that their petite mother suffered from severe arthritis in her hands and back.
“My sister and I remain extremely sad and angry,” they continued. “He murdered our mother and ruined our lives.”
Conrad’s body was found Sept. 1, 2001, inside her apartment at the Carlsbad by the Sea Retirement Community. An autopsy showed signs of sexual assault. Authorities collected DNA at the time but were unable to identify a suspect. Three years later, that DNA was matched to evidence collected from an unsolved attempted rape of a 64-year-old nursing home employee in Los Angeles, who bit her attacker.
Still the case remained unsolved.
In 2007, Fernandez was arrested in Los Angeles on a drug charge. Authorities took a sample of his DNA but didn’t enter it into a database until three weeks later. By then he had been released from custody.
Fernandez was arrested in Mexico City on Jan. 23, 2009. Because he fought extradition, it took 13 months for him to be returned to San Diego County.
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