DNA from tear drops found in kidnapping suspect’s car

SANTA ANA, Calif. – The man charged with kidnapping and murdering 5-year-old Samantha Runnion went on trial Monday with a prosecutor saying DNA from the girl’s tear drops was discovered inside the suspect’s car.

Assistant District Attorney David Brent also said a 6-year-old playmate of Samantha’s will testify that Alejandro Avila walked up to the girls and asked if they had seen a Chihuahua puppy before grabbing Samantha, who screamed, struggled and yelled for help as she was dragged away.

Samantha’s mother, Erin Runnion, shielded her eyes with one hand and looked toward the ground as the prosecutor described the DNA from Samantha’s tears.

“Samantha Runnion’s DNA is in this car,” Brent said in his opening statement, holding a picture of Avila’s green Ford Thunderbird.

Samantha was kidnapped on July 15, 2002, as she played with a friend outside her family’s apartment. Her nude body was found a day after her disappearance in mountains some 50 miles from her home.

Avila, 30, has been in custody since his arrest three days after Samantha’s death. He faces the death penalty if convicted of kidnapping, sexually assaulting and murdering the girl.

The defense was expected to begin its opening statement later Monday.

Brent said in addition to the tears on the inside door of Avila’s car, DNA evidence of an unspecified type was on the car’s center console and the girl had more genetic evidence under her fingernails. He did not specify whose DNA that was.

The autopsy showed Samantha was sexually assaulted before she suffocated from force placed on her upper chest, Brent said.

Samantha’s death came amid a string of highly publicized child abductions, including the kidnapping of 15-year-old Elizabeth Smart in Utah. More than 4,000 people attended Samantha’s funeral, and the case prompted California to post alerts on freeway signs whenever a child is abducted.

In 2001, a jury acquitted Avila of molesting two girls. Jurors in the Samantha Runnion case will be allowed to hear about the previous allegations, and Brent said the accusers from those cases would testify.