Death penalty trial begins for Mesa man accused of raping, killing teen

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — It was more than 10 years ago that 14-year-old girl Claudia Lucero was found strangled to death in a Mesa dumpster.

Thursday was the first day of the capital murder trial for Alex Madrid, the man accused of killing her.

Police said Madrid is the victim’s mom’s ex-boyfriend and they say Claudia was sexually assaulted before she was killed.

The death penalty is on the table for Madrid.

The prosecution has everything from DNA, cellphone location data, and physical evidence on their side, but the defense said there wasn’t enough time for Madrid to dispose of her body in the dumpster based on surveillance video.

“Sometimes the person that you want the most is the person that you can’t have. For Alex Madrid, 14-year-old Claudia Lucero was that person,” the prosecution began with.

In opening statements, the prosecution laid the groundwork for what happened to Claudia on Dec. 5, 2013.

According to police and the state, Claudia’s mother recently broke up with Madrid and made him move out of their apartment.

They said on that December morning, after Claudia’s mom and brothers left the house, Claudia was getting ready for school when Madrid came into the apartment, raped her, then took her life.

“Alex Madrid made the choice to get a ligature of some kind, wrap it around her neck, and at that point strangle her to death,” the prosecution said.

Police said he then put her in a gray tub wrapped in a comforter along with some of her belongings and disposed of her body in this blue dumpster at a nearby complex.

Claudia’s mother reported her as a missing person, thinking she may have run away, until the next morning when two women were searching for bottles and cans in that blue dumpster.

“At some point this female realized that what she was pulling on was a body, because the blanket came open and she saw there were two human legs underneath,” the prosecution said.

That body was identified as Claudia.

But the defense said in their opening statements surveillance footage shows an unlikely timeline that Madrid could have dumped the teen’s body.

Madrid’s attorney said, according to the video, that the dumpster was emptied at 7:18 am.

“There’s a window on those videos between 7:18-7:28 a.m.,” said the defense attorney.

He said the surveillance video picked back up at 7:28 a.m. and claimed that in that narrow window, Madrid would not have had time to commit this act.

“You are not going to see Mr. Madrid in that video. You are not going to see Mr. Madrid putting a body in the dumpster,” said the defense.

But the prosecution said in addition to Claudia’s belongings found in the dumpster with her body, she was also wrapped in a trunk floor mat that appeared to be missing from Madrid’s trunk with a tag that matched the same make and model as his car.

DNA results, including semen found on Claudia’s body, also matched Madrid, but his attorney claimed police had their minds made up and never looked at anyone else.

“Investigators in the case fail to investigate other possibilities,” said the defense attorney. “It was a rush of judgement.”

Claudia’s brother testified late Thursday afternoon; he was the last person to see her alive.

He said a blue necktie was missing from his tie rack and had an audibly surprised reaction in the courtroom when he was shown it for the first time as evidence.

The insinuation from the state was that it was likely the murder weapon.

This case was incredibly hard to choose a jury for.

This is a death penalty case, which is something people have harsh views for or against, so the court had to find open-minded people who won’t make a judgment until it’s time to decide a verdict.

Also, the judge told the jurors to expect to be here through the end of January.

Because this trial is so long, they were worried about having enough jurors.

There are 18 jurors sitting through the entire trial with 6 alternates, but nobody will know who the alternates are until they reach the end of the guilt phase.

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Copyright 2024 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.