Nearly four decades after a Santa Maria mother of three was found dead, Santa Barbara County Superior Court jurors on Friday found a Georgia man guilty of first-degree murder for killing Ofelia Sandoval. 

Aloysius Winthrop James, 58, of Gainesville, Georgia, was arrested in 2024 in connection with the killing of the 30-year-old woman, who had been strangled.

She was found dead inside a room at the Town Center Hotel on the 200 block of North Broadway on Sept. 18, 1988. The hotel was torn down after a fire in 2013.

As the court clerk read the jury’s verdict, Sandoval’s family members in the audience Friday began crying. A contingent of relatives has been in the courtroom throughout the trial. 

The panel of 10 men and two women was tasked with deciding if a special circumstance, or sentencing enhancement, was true that the killing occurred during the commission of a rape or attempted rape. They made that finding, too. 

Law enforcement officers connected James with DNA test results collected from the victim and at least one item in the hotel room where Sandoval lived and died. DNA testing had eliminated a number of suspects previously.

FBI agents in California and Georgia assisted Santa Maria Police Department detectives in surreptitiously obtaining DNA samples from discarded items at James’ workplace.

Jurors also heard how the defendant denied in 1988 and again in 2024 having sexual contact with the victim or being in her room, with recordings played in court.

Defense attorneys Robert Sanger and Jessica Talavera noted a missing key piece of evidence, a woven fabric belt, that could have identified another suspect.

They also noted the lackluster police investigation through the years, including a designation on a department document saying “no further investigation” in January 1989, four months after the woman’s death.

He also suggested that the belt could help determine who committed the murder.

Sanger argued that the DNA evidence connecting James to the woman and her residence didn’t prove who killed Sandoval.

The age of the case meant that many of the witnesses had retired from their law enforcement jobs. Others weren’t available because of death or illness. 

For one former police officer, jurors saw a conditional exam, or recorded interview, conducted by the attorneys with the judge before William “Bill” Spears died last fall. 

The jury heard opening statements in the trial on Jan. 22 after several weeks of jury selection, with the proceedings wrapping up sooner than initially estimated.

Judge Kristy Imel presided over the trial, but Judge John McGregor filled in Friday for the reading of the verdict.

After the verdict, Sanger said he intends to file a motion for a new trial in the coming weeks.

The case is scheduled to return to court for sentencing on April 14. James faces the possibility of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

James, who now uses a wheelchair, remains in the custody of the Santa Barbara County Jail.