Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell has announced that Alex Anthony Madrid, 42, has received the death penalty for the murder of 14-year-old Claudia Lucero, a freshman at Westwood High School in Mesa.
The death sentence is in addition to the 91 years he already received for kidnapping and other non-capital charges related to the same assault, according to a release.
On Dec. 5, 2013, Lucero’s family filed a missing person report with the Mesa Police Department after she didn’t come home from school. The following day, her body was found in a dumpster two miles from her Mesa home. According to the medical examiner’s report, she died of strangulation, and her body showed signs of sexual assault. Semen collected from the victim’s body matched Alex Madrid’s DNA profile. Madrid was subsequently arrested, the release states.
In October, a jury found Madrid guilty of the following:
- One count of first-degree murder, a class one felony
- One count of kidnapping, a class two felony
- One count of sexual conduct with a minor, a class two felony and dangerous crime against children
- One count of burglary in the second degree, a class three felony
- One count of abandonment or concealment of a dead body, a class five felony
- One count of unlawful flight from law enforcement, a class six felony.
“After waiting 11 painful years to see Claudia’s murderer be held accountable, the day has finally arrived for Claudia’s mother and the Lucero family. I have had the privilege of being with them and saw firsthand the pain they’ve been through,” County Attorney Mitchell said in the release. “I commend our prosecutors Christopher Sammons and Jennifer Carper, and the Mesa Police Department for their unwavering dedication for more than a decade to getting justice for Claudia and her family.”
