Education
She later changed her original confession and stated that an unidentified male accomplice forced her to start stabbing the girl, and then he finished the slaying.
She later changed her original confession and stated that an unidentified male accomplice forced her to start stabbing the girl, and then he finished the slaying.
She is currently on California"s death row. When Alfaro originally planned to approach the Wallace home, she expected the home would be vacant. When she found Autumn at home, she then realized she would have to kill her because she would know who committed the burglary.
Alfaro stabbed Autumn 57 times, and then proceeded to take whatever she could that was of possible value.
Alfaro has never identified the male. Police and the Orange County Prosecutor said he never existed.
Alfaro was raised in Anaheim, California, near Disneyland. Eventually, she became a murderer at 18 (while pregnant with twins) and the first woman in Orange County, California to get the death penalty at 20.
Alfaro was high on cocaine and heroin and needed a fix.
She knew the Wallace family very well and was friendly with one of the older daughters. She thought they were out and that she would be able to steal items from the home to sell so she could get her fix. Autumn opened the door for Alfaro, her sister"s friend, who asked to use the bathroom.
She took a knife from the kitchen before proceeding to the bathroom, located at the back of the house.
She then coaxed Autumn into the bathroom on a ruse, and stabbed her over 50 times. Alfaro then raided the house for something to steal, supposedly to acquire drug money.
The stolen property was later sold for less than $300. Alfaro confessed to the crime during a police-taped interview, stating she was high on heroin and cocaine when she stabbed Autumn.
Later she changed her story and alleged an unidentified man "forced" her to stab the little girl.
Still later Alfaro told police that two men drove her to the Wallace home, and one of the men entered the house and forced her to kill Autumn. She refused to identify the manitoba She was tried and convicted of first-degree murder with special circumstances.
At the end of the penalty phase of the trial, the jury deadlocked 10-2 on the sentence of death.
The penalty phase of the trial was then declared a mistrial. A second jury returned a verdict of death.
The trial judge upheld the jury’s verdict and sentenced Alfaro to death. Alfaro was the first woman sentenced to death in the gas chamber, and at the time of sentencing was the third woman on death row in California.
In August 2007, the California Supreme Court voted unanimously to uphold Alfaro"s death sentence.
The evidence from the crime scene only indicated that members of the Wallace family and Alfaro (based on her fingerprints and a matched bloodstained shoe print) were present in the home that day.