| News - Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Death penalty is upheld
A San Mateo County Superior Court judge Feb. 8 upheld a jury's recommendation to sentence 26-year-old Alberto Alvarez to death for killing East Palo Alto police Officer Richard May in 2006.
Family members of the officer, including stepfather Frank Merrill, reside in Atherton.
Jurors in December recommended the death penalty for Mr. Alvarez after convicting him Nov. 25 of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of killing a peace officer.
Had Judge Craig Parsons not upheld the death sentence, Alvarez would have faced life in prison without the chance of parole.
May was killed the afternoon of Jan. 7, 2006, after he responded to a report of a fight at a taqueria on University Avenue in East Palo Alto.
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