Bio

Alfonso Raymond Salazar was born on August 25, 1963. He grew up in Arizona, a state in the southwestern United States. Not much is widely known about his early life, family background, or childhood experiences leading up to his adult years.

Salazar later became involved with a man named Michael Davis. Together, they committed a crime that would change their lives forever. Their actions would lead to the tragic death of an elderly woman named Sarah Kaplan, but this part of Salazar's story comes after his childhood and young adulthood.

Murder Story

On July 25, 1986, Alfonso Raymond Salazar and Michael Davis entered the home of an elderly woman named Sarah Kaplan in Tucson, Arizona. They gained access by removing the wrought iron bars from a window. Sarah was 83 years old, weighed less than 90 pounds, was 5 feet tall, and had a patch over one eye. Inside her home, Salazar and Davis assaulted her physically and then strangled her using a telephone cord.

After the incident, fingerprints from both men were discovered at the scene. One of Salazar's fingerprints was found in blood. In a separate trial, Michael Davis was convicted and also sentenced to death.

Alfonso Salazar's trial began on December 2, 1987, and after the proceedings, the jury delivered a verdict on December 14, 1987. He was sentenced to death on February 9, 1988, by Judge Gilbert Veliz. The prosecution, led by Jesse Figueroa and Kathleen Mayer, noted that the circumstances of the murder were especially heinous and cruel. There were no mitigating circumstances considered sufficient to call for leniency in his case.