WCDA Alegria Sentencing

First Degree Murder Conviction Results in Life Sentence

July 15, 2020

Reno, Nevada

The Washoe County District Attorney’s Office has secured life sentences in a double murder prosecution after the defendant pled guilty in May to two counts of 1^st Degree Murder with a Deadly Weapon and one count of 1^st Degree Arson. Alexis Cynthia Alegria, 31, from Sparks was sentenced on June 26^th to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole and an additional 5 to 20 years for associated deadly weapon enhancements. Alegria was also sentenced to a 15-year prison term for the arson charge, with a parole eligibility of 6 years. All three sentences were set by the court to run consecutive to each other. Alegria has a significant history of mental illness and Sparks police contacts connected to calls for service by family. She was previously found incompetent to face charges of vehicle burglary in 2016. A competency review was requested in this case and Alegria was ultimately found competent to stand trial after a court ordered evaluation.       

The case against Alegria began on October 11, 2018, when the Sparks Police Department (SPD) responded to assist with a structure fire on Dolce Drive in Sparks. Upon arrival, SPD patrol officers met with Alegria, who said she lived in the home with her elderly parents. When asked if others were inside the home, Alegria was initially hesitant but eventually mumbled that her parents were inside. While speaking to her, SPD officers noticed that Alegria had a cut on her lip and blood splatter on her legs and feet. Alegria claimed she was woken up by the fire and fell running down the stairs. After receiving this information, SPD officers and an off-duty firefighter who had stopped at the scene, determined that the home was already too fully engulfed in flames to enter.  SPD detectives began an investigation and learned that Alegria had intentionally set the fire to cover up the murders of her parents. It was determined that Alegria had been arguing with her mother and father over her having been caught huffing paint in the garage. The argument became physical and Alegria ultimately took a crowbar and beat both parents to the ground before stabbing her father in the back of the head and setting fire to the house. Autopsies of both victims later determined that each died from blunt force head trauma and her father had sharp force injuries to his head. Alegria was arrested and this office filed formal criminal charges against her.  

At sentencing, Deputy District Attorney (DDA) Michael Bolenbaker presented body camera footage from SPD officers at the scene as well as a recorded phone call from Alegria to her brother where she admitted to the murder of her parents and the arson of her home. In a sentencing memo filed with the court, DDA Bolenbaker submitted that the victims had to repeatedly call 911 on their own daughter, noting that no allegations of abuse towards the defendant were contained in any of the multiple police reports associated with those calls. He further noted that after carefully considering Alegria’s mental health history, her actions on scene, and her attempts to lie and cover up her heinous crimes, showed she was motivated by enragement over her parents’ refusal to allow her to do drugs in their home. DDA Bolenbaker added, “No parents should have the last vision they see is their own daughter taking their life, and that was deserving of a life sentence without parole.”