A state appeals court panel Friday upheld a man’s conviction for murdering a handyman and cutting off his left hand before fleeing to Mexico, where he lived for nine years before being arrested.
Alan Machain was convicted in October 2019 of first-degree murder for the Oct. 8, 2008, shooting of Cesar Valenzuela, 44, of South Gate.
The victim — who had been hired to do maintenance and repairs by the owner of a triplex in Silver Lake — was shot at least three times and his left hand — which was never found — was cut off inside the home. His body was found five days later in a bathroom.
The motive for the killing was unclear.
Machain, a Lynwood resident whose brother was an employee of the property owner, had been given permission to occasionally stay in an unoccupied rental unit at the facility, according to testimony.
The appellate court panel noted that Machain unexpectedly moved out of the building before the victim’s body was discovered, moved in briefly with his parents and then fled to Mexico after his brother said police wanted to speak with him.
He was arrested in Tijuana in June 2017 and returned to the United States to stand trial.
The appellate court majority found that gun and gang evidence presented in Machain’s trial was relevant “because it tended to show Machain had a connection to the murder weapon through his gang.”
Associate Justice Maria E. Stratton wrote that she believed the gang evidence was “improperly admitted, but that its admission was harmless, given the strength of the cricumstantial evidence against appellant,” citing “amazingly persuasive circumstantial evidence proving appellant guilty of murder.”
Machain, now 38, was sentenced in November 2019 to 50 years to life in state prison.
In a statement read in court on her behalf at the defendant’s sentencing, the victim’s daughter, Julissa, noted that she was 4 when her father was killed.
Addressing the defendant directly, she called Machain’s actions “merciless.”
“I will never understand why you killed my father in such a cruel way,” she wrote.
The victim’s sister, Veronica, wrote that her older brother was her best friend and that the family was forever changed by what happened more than a decade earlier.
“My entire family has suffered over this for years,” she wrote, noting that they still missed him and remembered him.