Habitual Criminal Faces Rare No-Parole Sentence

In what could become the second such case in California and only the fifth in the nation, the U.S. attorney’s office in San Diego wants to lock up a longtime armed robber and burglar for life, with no possibility of parole, under the relatively new Armed Career Criminal Act.

The fate of Anthony Alvarez, an alcoholic with a 30-year criminal history, hinges largely on the recommendations of a pre-sentencing report, expected soon. If he is ultimately given life without parole, Alvarez, 57, will join the ranks of some far more notorious criminals.

Five months ago, Warren James Bland, a sex offender, was sentenced in federal court here to life without parole after repeated incidents in which he was granted parole, then molested children. He also faces the death penalty for the torture-molestation slaying of a 7-year-old girl.

In contrast, the U.S. attorney’s office here last month sought a dramatically lighter sentence for self-confessed murderer Billy Joe Ashe who, like Alvarez and Bland, was convicted under the career criminal statute.

In the eyes of Alvarez’s 82-year-old mother, her son isn’t in the same league.

Her son’s situation is particularly painful to Helen Alvarez because she finds herself praying for mercy to a court system in which she has worked for the past four decades.

Her career as a translator in federal and Superior courts has paralleled much of her son’s time before the bar of justice as a defendant.

“Life is too much. This is just awful,” said Helen Alvarez, who believes that even a death sentence for her only son would be more merciful than a life term.

“Who can sit around, year after year, with no chance of parole, all your days in a tiny little cell?”

The Armed Career Criminal Act, approved by Congress in 1986, was designed for incorrigible offenders and ex-convicts who use a firearm in one crime too many. The law mandates a mandatory minimum term of 15 years in prison, and a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole for habitual criminals who possess firearms.

Helen Alvarez and her son’s attorney, Knut Johnson, contend that while the crimes of Bland and Ashe were particularly vile, Anthony Alvarez has primarily been an alcoholic who drinks too much and then steals.

They say Anthony Alvarez does not deserve the same sentence as Bland. And they believe that if Ashe, an acknowledged murderer, can get off with 20 years, then Anthony Alvarez deserves much less.

“It’s very unfair,” said Johnson, a federal public defender. “It’s disproportionate. And I certainly don’t think Anthony Alvarez’s possession of a firearm warrants a life sentence.”

Helen Alvarez, a court translator since 1945, agreed. “Life in prison for being an alcoholic?” she said. “That’s not fair.”

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Larry Burns argued that each case stands on its own merits.

“What makes him so dangerous to society?” Burns said of Alvarez. “What justifies a life sentence? The answer is three decades of crimes and 11 prior felonies. That’s what makes him rise to the stature of a career criminal.”

Only four career-criminal cases in the nation have resulted in a no-parole sentence.

In one of those cases, Warren Bland was sentenced in federal court here last August after prosecutors showed that he had amassed 13 felonies and spent 23 of the past 28 years behind bars.

Bland is the only person in California to receive the penalty, and authorities, led by Burns, say Bland is more than deserving of the sentence.

A sex offender, Bland was routinely granted parole over the years, only to be arrested again for child molestation. Even while serving his life sentence, Bland is awaiting trial in a Riverside County capital murder case--the torture-molestation slaying of a 7-year-old girl.

Burns also prosecuted Billy Joe Ashe. Ashe had nine criminal convictions, beginning with the theft of copper wire from a Conroe, Tex., storage yard and including the 1974 murder of a fellow inmate in the Harris County, Tex., jail.

Burns asked for a 25-year sentence for Ashe, after studying a pre-sentencing report from the federal probation department that recommended 20 years. That recommendation was based on Ashe’s substance-abuse problems, the report said.

But Burns defended his plans to pursue the no-parole life sentence for Alvarez, citing congressional debate over the statute in which Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said various studies indicate that for every time a career criminal is arrested for robbery or burglary, he has probably committed 10 or 20 such crimes.

“Most robberies and burglaries are committed by career criminals who often have no lawful employment; their full-time occupation is crime for profit, and many commit crimes on a daily basis,” the senator said.

Alvarez’s record is long.

Beginning in 1961, with his arrest for stealing $6.95 and a trumpet from a music store where he worked, Alvarez’s record includes multiple counts of armed robbery, burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, battery, grand theft and auto theft.

“In one case, he pistol-whipped an elderly man and took the last money from his wallet,” Burns said. “He also once assaulted a police officer.”

Alcohol was often a contributing factor.

In 1969, Alvarez escaped from a San Bernardino area prison camp after leaving a dummy in his bed. A probation report stated: “There is indication alcohol had been smuggled into the camp and the defendant was under the influence.”

And, in 1980, when he was sentenced to four years and four months for an apartment burglary, the Superior Court judge took a dim view of Alvarez’s ability to rehabilitate himself.

“The defendant has taken advantage of positions of trust, family, relationships, has taken advantage of friends, has repeatedly committed offenses against these friends,” Judge Robert J. Stahl Jr. said.

“In drinking, he seems to become violent and he is doing physical injury to a certain extent while he is under the influence of alcohol. He is posing a danger to society . . . and he has not profited by experience of the prior convictions. He has not succeeded on probation or parole in the past.”

Alvarez was last released from prison in December, 1988, after serving several years for convictions involving robbery, battery and use of a deadly weapon. He was re-arrested four months later, after confronting his former landlord with a loaded semi-automatic pistol that Alvarez held inches from the man’s eyes, Burns said.

According to Burns, Alvarez had been evicted from the Sun Harbor motel on Rosecrans Street for not paying his rent. Alvarez pulled the pistol on manager John Chinander, but was distracted by Chinander’s wife. Chinander grabbed the weapon, a struggle ensued, and the pistol discharged. No one was injured. Alvarez fled and was later arrested.

“Ask Mr. Chinander if he thinks Anthony Alvarez is just a two-bit thief,” Burns said.

Helen Alvarez said her son had been drinking heavily before the fight with Chinander. She said he was incensed at being evicted without having a chance to take his clothes. He took the pistol from a relative and brought it to the motel in an attempt to retrieve his belongings.

“That’s all it was,” she said. “He had the gun and he showed it to the manager, and the manager knew he could handle a drunk like Tony.”

Johnson, the defense attorney, said the government is trying to make an example of Anthony Alvarez, and is unjustly comparing him to Bland and Ashe.

“It is very unreasonable to put someone in prison for life if he’s not a violent person,” Johnson said.

But Burns said it is unfair to compare potential life sentences under the statute, such as those of Bland and Ashe.

“Bland is not the measuring stick now for who gets life without parole,” he said. “He so far exceeded the standard by which we agree a person is an appropriate candidate for a life sentence that his case is almost aberrational. I mean, it is so seldom you see someone as bad as Warren Bland.”

In the case of Ashe’s 20-year sentence, Burns said Ashe had some redeeming qualities, such as being able to hold a job.

The prosecutor did not see any such attributes in Alvarez.

“Anthony Alvarez made his money pulling a gun and robbing people,” Burns said. “And given Anthony Alvarez’s history of violence, given his record of criminality, he exceeds the standards by which we weigh career criminals.”