A Georgia man has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for a 1988 cold case murder on the Central Coast.
On September 18, 1988, Ofelia Sandoval’s body was found on the floor of her Santa Maria home. The 30-year-old woman had been sexually assaulted and strangled.
Santa Maria Police detectives collected evidence, but nothing led to an arrest, and the case went cold. Several Santa Maria Police detectives picked up the case over the years, with no progress.
In the early 2000s, DNA technology allowed them to develop a profile of the murderer, but it didn’t match anyone in nationwide criminal databases.
Then, in 2018, investigators teamed up with the FBI to get a DNA sample from a person of interest, Aloysius James. It matched, and they started building a case against the Georgia man.
James was arrested in 2024 and convicted this year of first-degree murder with special circumstances for the sexual assault.
The sentencing comes almost 38 years after the murder.
Family members were on hand for the sentencing, which prosecutors hope will bring them some long-sought closure to the tragedy.
