JURY FINDS LANCASTER MAN GUILTY OF GROCER'S MURDER.

Byline: Michael Coit Daily News Staff Writer

A Ventura Superior Court jury found John Charles Alvez guilty Friday of murdering a Moorpark grocery clerk during a robbery in May.

The jury deliberated less than 90 minutes before finding the Lancaster man guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Marco Rodriguez. Alvez, a spice vendor who sold goods to the market, also was found guilty of lying in wait and killing Rodriquez during a robbery, meaning he faces a mandatory prison term of life without possibility for parole.

Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty because Alvez, 23, has no criminal record. Sentencing is set before Judge Vincent O'Neill on Dec. 6.

The trial began Oct. 16 and was scheduled for three weeks.

The prosecution's weeklong case featured often emotional testimony from the victim's family and a 17-year-old girl who last saw Marco Rodriguez alive.

Deputy District Attorney Jim Ellison argued that evidence and testimony placed Alvez at the store before the killing and linked Alvez to money from the market and parts of the suspected murder weapon.

The teen-age girl testified that she witnessed Alvez, whom she knew as the spice vendor, holding a gun to Rodriguez shortly before he was killed.

The defense declined to counter the charges during the trial's evidence portion that Alvez intentionally killed Rodriguez to steal $2,000.

Deputy Public Defender Doug Daily instead argued in closing that the prosecutor did not prove as a motive that Alvez needed money. Though conceding that Alvez was at the store that day, Daily also argued that witnesses gave different physical descriptions of the assailant, no one witnessed the killing, and there could be another reason for why Alvez was in possession of money from the store.

Rodriguez, who lived with his family in Canoga Park, was killed about 11:25 a.m. May 5 at the Rodriguez Market on Moorpark Road in the city's central business area. Rodriguez, 21, was shot twice in the head at close range.

Witnesses testified that Alvez ran from the market, pulled off a nylon mask and drove away in a red car.

Ventura County sheriff's investigators arrested Alvez as he left his home in Lancaster late the same day.

Sheriff's detectives testified that they searched Alvez's home and a delivery truck and found cash and cash bags from the market, parts of a .22-caliber rifle and ammunition similar to that used in the slaying. Detectives said Alvez was in possession of several $100 bills with serial numbers matching those taken from the store.

Cesar Rodriguez, the victim's brother, testified that Alvez often complained of money problems.

Aurelio Rodriguez, the victim's father, testified that the Moorpark market was one of three his family owned. The father said he normally would have worked in Moorpark on the Sunday his son was killed. The father worked his son's normal Saturday shift so he could attend a boxing match, and the son worked the father's Sunday shift.

The family has since sold the Moorpark market.