Death Sentence Upheld by State Supreme Court
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SAN FRANCISCO — The state Supreme Court upheld the death sentence Monday of a Stanislaus County man for allegedly planning a drug-related revenge murder in which the killer was paid with a small amount of drugs.
Alfredo Alvarado Padilla “is not the most heinous murderer nor is his crime the most abominable,” the court said, noting Padilla’s limited, and hotly disputed, role in the murder plot.
Padilla, 46, is one of two men now on Death Row for the January, 1988, slaying of Esther Alvarado near Grayson, about 15 miles west of Modesto. Jesse Hernandez, convicted of being the triggerman, also was sentenced to death.
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