It’s taken more than three decades, but there’s been a conviction in a 1988 cold case murder on the Central Coast.
On September 18, 1988 Ofelia Sandoval was found dead in her home in Santa Maria. An autopsy showed the 30-year-old woman had been strangled.
At the time, Santa Maria Police detectives collected a large amount of evidence, but they were unable to link it to the woman’s killer. The case went cold.
Detectives never forgot the case, and would return to it periodically to see if they could develop new leads. In the 2000’s, new technology led to development of a DNA profile of the killer, but it didn’t match anyone in known databases. In 2018, the Santa Maria Police worked with the FBI to develop a DNA profile for a man named Aloysius James.
More testing occurred, and he was arrested in Georgia in 2024. Following a jury trial, James was convicted of first-degree murder.
He’s potentially facing life in prison without the possibility of parole. Sentencing is set for April 14.
