Witnesses testify in preliminary hearing for Seaside mother’s 1982 murder case

UPDATE 6/24/16 2:30 PM: A preliminary examination in the murder case against Alfred Powell continued on Friday.

Monterey County Deputy District Attorney Matthew L’Heureux said Judge Julie Culver believes there is enough evidence to move forward with a murder trial in the 1982 death of Sandra McGee.

Powell faces a murder charge with a special allegation because of a previous conviction.

Powell will be back in court July 7 to enter a plea. A trial date may be set at that time.

UPDATE 6/23/2016 6:15 PM: A 34-year-old murder case could be going to trial. Convicted killer Alfred Powell is accused of killing Seaside mother Sandra McGee in 1982. Her remains were found last year, buried on a Monterey property.

Powell, 60, is already serving 15 years to life for the 1983 murder of Suzanne Nixon. The Pebble Beach woman’s body was found beaten and buried in a shed in his backyard.

He could now face another murder case, the December 1982 death of Sandra McGee, whose remains were found on the same property in Monterey last year.

“We have the burden to show the judge that it’s more likely than not that the defendant is the person who committed the charged offenses, so, it’s our burden at this hearing,” said Matt L’Heureux, deputy district attorney.

During a preliminary hearing on Thursday, McGee’s old roommates talked about the night the 32-year-old mother of three went missing. They explained how she picked up a hitchhiker and brought him to their Seaside home before leaving with him. They went into detail about how the man made them feel uneasy and described him as “standoffish.” They identified him as Alfred Powell, saying they remembered his eyes, saying “there was nothing in them, they were dead.”

McGee was last seen pumping gas on North Fremont Street in Monterey. Her remains were found more than 30 years later.

“I’m so grateful that in my lifetime, my sister’s and my lifetime, that we’ve finally been able to at least find her,” Gigi Bridgers, McGee’s daughter, said. “We’ve found her remains. We know who has killed my mother.”

But the verdict is for the courts to decide.

McGee’s family wasn’t in court on Thursday, but family members of a third possible victim were.

Four months before McGee’s disappearance, 18-year-old Sheila Chavez went missing. Her body was found in September 1982 in a ravine behind the Monterey Public Library. Police said she died from blunt-force trauma and asphyxiation. Police said right now, Powell is only a person of interest in that case.

“I pray every day that they find whatever they need to link him and be able to charge this man with Sheila Chavez’s death,” Bridgers said.

Powell’s attorney declined to comment on the case. The hearing continues on Friday.

ORIGINAL POST:

A murder case cold for more than three decades, reignites as the man accused of killing Sandra McGee faced a judge during a preliminary hearing Thursday morning in Salinas.

Alfred Powell, who is already serving time in prison for killing a Pebble Beach woman in 1983, is now facing another murder charge for the death of McGee. Investigators said McGee went missing in 1982; her remains were found at a home in Monterey last year.

Prosecutors are expected to call three to eight witnesses during the hearing, which is expected to take two days. One of them is a former roommate who described the night McGee went missing.

KION’s Mariana Hicks will have more on this story at 5 & 6.