DATE: February 27, 2026
CASE: Christian Pedraza (Case #21FE006600)
PROSECUTOR: Principal Criminal Attorney James Wax, Homicide Unit
The Honorable Shelleyanne Chang sentenced Christian Pedraza to 16 years to life in prison. On November 15, 2024, Pedraza was convicted by a jury of second-degree murder. The jury also found true that Pedraza personally used a knife.
In April 2021, Christian Pedraza and his work acquaintance, Raymond Alvarez, were in a motel room together. Pedraza was hiding a knife and when the victim was distracted on the phone, he attacked the victim, stabbing him more than 60 times. The victim was still moving and screaming, so Pedraza cut his throat to silence him. Pedraza then washed his hands in the motel sink, changed clothes, and fled out of the window. A motel employee heard the commotion and called 911. Officers located Pedraza in a nearby parking lot with blood on his hands.
In the first sanity trial, the jury hung in favor of insanity. In this re-trial of the sanity phase, the jury found that Pedraza was sane when he committed the murder.