By Erica Molina Johnson / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 04/30/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT

On the afternoon that 5-year-old Alexandra Flores was kidnapped from a Lower Valley Wal-Mart and strangled in 2001, convicted murderer David Renteria was home for most of the day, his wife, Maria Jimenez de Renteria, testified Tuesday, the first day of Renteria's defense in his resentencing trial for the capital murder.

She was an 18-year-old high-school senior when she met Renteria and became pregnant, and soon moved in with his family. On Nov. 18, 2001, the day Alexandra disappeared, Jimenez de Renteria testified, David Renteria, then 31, went to the store for ingredients to prepare dinner, but was back in about 20 minutes. He again left to buy red chiles for the meal, but returned with a man.

"The person was inside the van. (Renteria) went out and he told me he'd be back in a little while," Jimenez de Renteria testified through an interpreter. She said that when he returned, he had signs of being beaten, including blows to his back and an injured finger.

Read the entire article HERE [1].