Holifield found guilty of 1998 rape, murder of Seaside girl

SALINAS, Calif. (KION) Charles Holifield, the man accused of raping and murdering a Seaside girl in 1998, was found guilty without reasonable doubt Friday in a non-jury trial, according to Lead Prosecutor Lindsey O'Shea. A Monterey County judge immediately sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The prosecution will not seek the death penalty, according to the DA's Office. The decision is in exchange for his agreement to waive his right to a jury trial and his rights to state and federal writs and appeals.

The victim, 13-year-old Christina Williams, disappeared in June 1998 when she went to walk her dog in a Seaside military housing complex. Her dog was found wandering the neighborhood, but Williams did not return home

Her skeletal remains were found seven months later in a remote part of Fort Ord off Imjin Road. The coroner was not able to determine her cause of death, but circumstances indicated that she had been murdered.

Holifield was a suspect early on because he was a convicted sex offender who had been found trespassing on restricted parts of Fort Ord twice in 1997. The FBI interviewed him multiple times, and he denied any involvement. He did say that he did not have an alibi for the night Williams disappeared and did not know where he was that night. He told multiple people that he was familiar with Fort Ord, and his ex-girlfriend said Holifield was very familiar with the area where Williams' body was found. She also said he had threatened to kill her while driving near one of the roads that led to that site.

The mother of one of Holifield's girlfriends provided him an alibi for the night Williams disappear, and his girlfriend later testified that he was with her that night. In 2011, she recanted, saying she only gave him an alibi because she was afraid of him because of previous threats. Others who testified contradicted the alibi.

Holifield was charged with the crime in 2017. Williams' underwear was re-tested for DNA evidence, and the California Department of Justice Crime Laboratory found sperm cells. The lab found that the cells were an exact match with Holifield.

Prior to being charged with Williams' murder, Holifield was convicted of two sexual assaults that involved him attacking, strangling and raping teenage girls who were walking alone in Monterey County in 1979 and 1983. Both testified at the trial.

On Friday, Holifield was found guilty of first-degree murder by a judge, who also found tue two special-circumstance allegations that the murder was committed during a kidnapping and lewd and lascivious acts on a child under the age of 14. Holifield was also convicted of kidnapping Williams with the intent to commit rape. The judge found that he was a habitual sex offender who had four prior strike offences within California's Three Strikes Law.

Holifield was already serving 25-years-to-life for previous kidnapping and rape convictions.