New trial set for man accused in '97 murder of Glendale woman

by Jackee Coe - Jul. 21, 2010 04:52 PM
The Arizona Republic
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A new trial is scheduled to begin next month for an ex-convict accused of slaying a Glendale woman in 1997 and dumping her body in Goodyear.

The first-degree murder trial for Alfredo Garcia Paez, 42, will start Aug. 16, according to Maricopa County Superior Court documents.


Superior Court Judge Joseph Welty declared a mistrial in the first trial on June 24 following nine days of testimony and deliberations because the jury was "hopelessly deadlocked and (was not) able to reach a unanimous verdict," records show.

Paez was arrested last year after DNA linked him to the slaying of 24-year-old Avelina Contreras, who was stabbed, strangled and dumped in a ditch in Goodyear.

Current court documents list the defendant's name as Paez. But in previous police reports, court papers and Arizona Department of Corrections records, he is listed by the aliases Arturo Peña Nevarez and Miguel Auturo Navarra-Peña.

Contreras' body was found June 8, 1997, in an irrigation ditch southwest of Van Buren Street and Estrella Parkway in Goodyear. She had been dead for about two days, but police believed she was killed elsewhere.

Police could find only minimal evidence and the case eventually grew cold.

They resumed the investigation in 2007 as evidence was checked against national databases. Authorities matched DNA from the crime scene with DNA taken while Paez served a five-year sentence on drug charges at the State Prison Complex-Lewis in Buckeye.

Goodyear police arrested him on May 28, 2009, a day after he was released from prison to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Paez, a Mexican national, lived in Phoenix before going to prison the first time in 2005.



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