This is a sad story. Original article here.
A Vallejo man was arraigned in Martinez on Wednesday on charges that he murdered a man in his home in Bay Point, stole property, including a custom-made gold-plated flute, and then set the man’s house on fire, prosecutor Harold Jewett said Wednesday.
Alejandro Rivera, a 23-year-old male escort, met the victim, 66-year-old Theodore Neff, on Craigslist and had a sexual relationship with him, Jewett said.
The two men got into an argument on Dec. 3, during which Rivera allegedly strangled Neff.
At some point after the murder, Rivera allegedly went back into Neff’s home at 542 Bustos Place in unincorporated Bay Point, stole property and allegedly set the house on fire, Jewett said.
They have caught the guy, and charged him with murder, arson and burglary. The whole story is messed up.
He also killed Mr. Neff’s cat and the neighbors said someone tried to break into his residence 12/1/08, the tragedy occurred 12/3/08. I hope they shut craigslist.com’s personals down because of this. I don’t think they got into an argument that would escalate to the point where Mr. Rivera couldn’t have just simply walked out the front door. I think Rivera had always intended to burglarize Mr. Neff’s home once he learned Mr. Neff had the flutes.
I really hope this guy gets what’s coming to him and I really wish they would add animal cruelty to the rest the charges. I hope this is first degree with special circumstances and there is no parole for this punk.
Craigslist is really one of the slum areas of the internet, much like MySpace. Facebook isn’t really much better.
However, we are talking about the SF Bay Area. And we are known for having some rather strange judges that will sometimes make stupid sentences. We’ll see.