GUILTY CA - Sandra Coke, 50, Oakland, 4 Aug 2013

New details have emerged in the alleged murder of a federal investigator by her ex-boyfriend, including that they had a teenage daughter together.

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mikkismom said:

New details in missing Calif. investigator murder

http://www.sddt.com/News/article.cf...issing+Calif+investigator+murder#.Unj_bPmUQbw

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The defense lawyer for career criminal Randy Alana asked a judge today to dismiss charges that he murdered his longtime girlfriend Sandra Coke last August, alleging that the prosecution only has "a very weak circumstantial evidence case"...

But prosecutor Michael O'Connor said Judge Reardon was able to "connect the dots" that tie Alana to Coke's death and he believes "a jury won't have any problem connecting the dots" when the case goes to trial.

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A parolee’s GPS ankle monitor as well as surveillance footage placed him with a federal defense investigator from Oakland — the mother of his teenage daughter — on the night in 2013 that he killed her, a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday.

Alameda County prosecutor Colleen McMahon delivered her opening statement in the murder trial of Randy Alana, 57, who has denied that he strangled 50-year-old Sandra Coke, dumped her body, stole her car and used her bank cards. Alana’s lawyer is expected to introduce his case Wednesday.

Authorities believe Alana and Coke, who worked for the Office of the Federal Defender in Sacramento, reconnected after he was released from prison in 2012 after a robbery conviction. But tensions flared after Coke’s cocker spaniel disappeared in May 2013 and Coke, believing Alana had something to do with it, called his parole agent.

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McMahon said a hero in the case is Coke's daughter, who was 15 at the time of the killing and has never had a relationship with her biological father, Alana. She, like most of Coke's friends and family, didn't know Alana's last name despite the fact that [her mother] and Coke were romantically linked off and on for two decades.

Jurors on Tuesday heard a heart-wrenching recording of the girl's 911 call on Aug. 4, 2013 a couple hours after Coke left her Oakland home. The girl called her mom's work cell shortly after Coke left to ask her to bring home a diet soda. Coke told the girl she was with Randy, looking for their missing dog, McMahon said.

That phone was soon found by a couple of college students on a street, one of whom called Coke's daughter. The girl then logged on a "Find My iPhone" app and traced Coke's personal cell from Interstate 80 up to Vacaville and back to Richmond.

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A jury deliberated for less than two hours Wednesday before finding Randy Alana guilty as charged for the murder of his estranged lover, Sandra Coke.

Alana, 58, faces up to 96 years to life in prison for strangling Coke, a federal defender investigator, on Aug. 4, 2013. A sentencing date has not been set.

Alana entered and left the courtroom smiling and gave no visible reaction at the verdict's reading.

"See you around," he said, giving his attorney, Al Wax a big handshake before being escorted from the courtroom.

"Mr. Alana maintains his innocence. There will be an appeal," Wax said. "He expects he'll be vindicated sooner or later."

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Calling him a “black hole that sucks the life out of anything positive,” a judge sentenced an Oakland sex offender with a long rap sheet to 131 years to life in prison Thursday for killing a federal defense investigator that he once dated and had a child with.

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