LAS VEGAS (AP) - A 33-year-old man who killed a woman with a
machete in Las Vegas will spend the rest of his life in prison
after jurors decided to forgo the death penalty.
Clark County jurors decided 33-year-old Victor Cruz-Garcia's
fate Tuesday. They convicted him last week of first-degree murder
in the death of 46-year-old Beatrice Alvarez. Cruz-Garcia was also
convicted of two counts of attempted murder for attacking the
woman's sons in 2007.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that the jury decided to spare Cruz-Garcia's life because of mitigating circumstances, such as the violence he witnessed growing up during a civil war in El Salvador.
Cruz-Garcia had recently moved in with his girlfriend into Alvarez's apartment weeks before the attack.
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