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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Murder Girls

This next story I will tell is about two girls, 15 and 16, who wanted to steal a vehicle to get to Knott's Scary Farm in Riverside County, and ended up sentenced to life in prison.

Dayana Cordova and Anna Alejandra Salinas that October night were picked up by a Good Samaritan who apparently thought two teens walking the streets of Lake Elsinore at night could be in danger but little did the woman know that she was the one in danger from these young predators.

On Oct. 18, 2007, Anna Alejandra Salinas, who was 15 at the time, shot 20-year-old Angelina
Arias in the head as the woman gave Salinas and co-defendant Dayana Cordova a
ride home.

Salinas was 17 when she was sentenced to 59 years to life in prison.in December 2009.
Because of her age at the time of the Oct. 18, 2007, murder, Salinas,
could not be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

But Cordova, who was 16 at the time, was sentenced to life without parole.

Cordova also received a nine-year sentence for child abuse and
kidnapping because she and Salinas drove around with the victim's 9-month-old
daughter for about two hours before leaving her on someone's Lake Elsinore
doorstep.

In sentencing them, the judge called them "Child Monsters."

Riverside Superior Court Judge F. Paul Dickerson excoriated the women
for their actions and their subsequent lack of remorse.

``Callousness on this scale defies comprehension,'' he said.

A probation report prepared about the women cited a videotape of the
defendants in a police interview room, laughing and blaming the victim for her
own death.

``Nobody told her fucking ass to give us a ride,'' Cordova said on
the tape, which was shown to jurors during trial.

Dickerson said it was his understanding from Salinas' statements to a
probation officer that she believed she would get out of prison by the time she
was 40 and would then start a family.

``The defendant is sorely mistaken,'' Dickerson said, adding that
Salinas will be 75 years old before she can walk out of prison.

``She will be deep into old age if she ever sees life outside prison,''
said Dickerson.

Salinas, who had remained unmoved during her trial and conviction, cried
as the prosecutor and judge spoke of her heartlessness, remorselessness and
lack of redeeming qualities.

Deputy District Attorney Daniel DeLimon said he wanted to find some good
in Cordova, who did not actually pull the trigger.

``I have been looking for evidence of hope and this is hard,'' DeLimon
said, his voice breaking.

But Cordova has ``evil in her heart'' and ``evil in her soul,'' said
DeLimon.


``To this day, not one tear,'' he said.

DeLimon said when the case started he thought perhaps Cordova could be
spared life without parole at the judge's discretion because she was so young,

but now he believes that there should be no mercy for her.

``She doesn't deserve it,'' DeLimon said. ``They both concocted a
sinister and evil plan.''


On the night Arias was killed, the girls had been looking for someone to
carjack so they could get to Knott's Berry Farm, which was having a Halloween-
themed event.

Cordova provided her father's gun, showed Salinas how to use it and the
girls practiced with the pistol earlier in the day, according to trial
testimony.

They hitched a ride with a man earlier that evening but did not go
through with the carjacking.

When Arias picked them up, she recognized them because she had served
them at her family's restaurant that evening.

She offered the girls a ride home, according to testimony.

Cordova sat in front of the Chrysler 300 and Salinas sat in back, next
to the woman's daughter, who was in a car seat.

Salinas shot Arias twice in the head, then they unbuckled her from the
driver's seat and dumped her on the street.

``She was trying to save your life, and you killed her for it,'' DeLimon
told Salinas today.

Of Cordova, DeLimon said, ``She pushed Anna Salinas to do it.''

The baby was not found for about two hours, when the adults who lived at the home on which doorstep she was left arrived home.

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