Paul Apodaca ‘will spend the rest of his life in prison where he can’t hurt anyone else,’ the Bernalillo County District Attorney said
A serial killer in New Mexico was sentenced to 45 years in prison for the murders of three young women in the late 1980s that went unsolved for more than 30 years.
Paul Apodaca pleaded guilty Thursday to three counts of second-degree murder, Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman announced on X, formerly Twitter.
He turns 56 on Saturday and “will spend the rest of his life in prison where he can’t hurt anyone else,” Bregman said.
Apodaca killed 13 year-old Stella Gonzales, 18 year-old Kaitlyn Arquette and 21 year-old Althea Oakeley in Albuquerque. He did not know his victims, investigators said.
Stella, 13, was shot to death while walking near Tingley beach with a friend in September 1988. Oakeley, a University of New Mexico student, was stabbed to death while walking home from a party in June 1988. Arquette was shot in 1989 while driving.