David Ramiro Alvarez, 46, is serving a sentence of 25 years to life, with the possibility of parole, in Calipatria State Prison for the murder of 14-year-old Nordhoff freshman Kali Manley in 1998. His next parole hearing is scheduled to be held in 2028.
David Ramiro Alvarez, 46, is serving a sentence of 25 years to life, with the possibility of parole, in Calipatria State Prison for the murder of 14-year-old Nordhoff freshman Kali Manley in 1998. His next parole hearing is scheduled to be held in 2028.
At his nearly hourlong parole hearing on Jan. 19, held via videoconference, David Ramiro Alvarez, 46, who is serving a sentence of 25 years to life with the possibility of parole, for murdering 14-year-old Nordhoff freshman Kali Manley in 1998, was granted a five-year postponement. He will be up for parole again in 2028.
Appearing on camera at Calipatria State Prison, starting at 10:30 a.m., Alvarez accepted the recommendation of the commissioners for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for the postponement, through his attorney. That time would allow him to continue to take classes and address his substance-abuse addictions, which his attorney said might make him suitable for release in the future.
The recommendation for a five-year postponement was made by Commissioner Patricia Cassady and approved by her, in consultation with Deputy Commissioner Kate Iwanami. By Alvarez accepting the postponement, Commissioner Cassady said that he “is saying he is unsuitable” for parole currently. She noted that the stipulation is “no guarantee of parole” in the future, “just another hearing.”
Alvarez’s attorney, Diane Letarte in San Diego, had requested a three-year postponement, but that was rejected by the commissioners.
Deputy Attorney General Seth McCutcheon, who also attended the video conference hearing, objected to the three-year postponement request “based on the record before us,” telling commissioners: “A 10-year denial is more appropriate. I could go into it for several reasons.” Among the reasons he listed, before being interrupted by Commissioner Cassady, was “the callous and cold-blooded nature” of Kali Manley’s murder.
Alvarez admitted before his sentencing on March 30, 2000, to strangling the teenager and hiding her body in a drainage culvert off the Maricopa Highway, in the mountains about 35 miles north of Ojai. Hundreds of community members searched for Kali when she was reported missing on Dec. 20, 1998, not knowing whether she was alive or if harm had come to her.
Alvarez finally disclosed where he had hidden Kali’s body, which was found on Dec. 26, 1998.
McCutcheon said that Alvarez, in interviews with the media, the Probation Department and his psychologist, “continuously minimized and refused to take full accountability” for Kali's murder. He added that in those interviews, Alvarez had offered “new denials” that he had not previously stated.
McCutcheon also noted Alvarez’s “lifelong drug problem” that has “only escalated as he has gotten older.”
Kali’s father, Charles Manley of Ojai, who attended the video hearing from the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office with his wife, Holly, told the Ojai Valley News following the hearing: “It was a good thing, all in all. He's in prison for five more years. ... Today’s outcome was unexpected, but it was a good outcome.”
He and his wife and their daughter, Chelsea Manley of Squamish, British Columbia, Canada, who also attended the parole hearing separately via video conference, all said they would make a statement to the parole board the next time Alvarez is up for parole five years hence.
A statement from the family “would not have factored into the decision today,” Charles Manley said, explaining that when he makes his statement to the parole board, he prefers it be “at the top” of the parole board’s stack of papers.
He told the Ojai Valley News that the statement he had prepared was “going to center on who Kali was, the impact of her loss, and the threat of continued sexual violence by David Alvarez.”
At the hearing, Ventura County Deputy District Attorney Lauren Malan, who was eventually allowed to speak in the role as a family “representative,” told the commissioners that the parole hearings are difficult for family members.
“It’s disturbing and awkward,” Charles Manley said, but “it’s inevitable. This is just part of our criminal justice system and how it works. We accept that and are prepared five years from now to go through with it again.
“We want to thank the community for supporting our family,” he said. “It meant a lot. ... The outpouring of letters (to the parole board) was quite impressive,” he said, noting that state Assemblymembers Steve Bennett and Jacqui Irwin and state Sen. Monique Limon also wrote letters to the parole board “in support of keeping him incarcerated.”
One of the letters to the parole board from Pastor Paul Bergmann of Ojai, published Jan. 13 in the Ojai Valley News, stated that Alvarez’s mother had committed suicide. Charles Manley said he had not known that until five days ago, and learned that Alvarez’s mother had committed suicide in 2013 “right before the anniversary of my child’s murder. David Alvarez is responsible for two deaths, including that of his mother. It’s horrendous.”
Alvarez told commissioners that while he was in prison, “My mom committed suicide a few years before the anniversary and it was hard for me to deal with.”
Charles Manley said of his daughter Kali, “She’s in our thoughts always.”
At the hearing, Alvarez said his “sober date” is April 2020. He told the commissioners that before being sentenced to prison, he was addicted to alcohol and speed. “When I came to prison, I started using heroin,” he said, adding that he had “died twice” by overdosing on heroin in a building and in the hospital and that, both times, “they brought me back” and “this is the longest time I have been sober.”
