In 1990, Rosie Alfaro stabbed a nine year old girl to death for drug money. She was sentenced to death for this in 1992.
In 1990, nine year old Autumn Wallace was alone at home. She was making paper dolls when 18 year old Rosie Alfaro knocked on the door. Rosie Alfaro knew the Wallace family very well because she was friends with Autumn's older sister. So, Autumn let her in after Alfaro asked if she could use her restroom. However, Alfaro had different intentions. Alfaro (who was a drug addict and also pregnant at the time) wanted money to purchase drugs. So, she selected a house of a family she knew believing that nobody was there. To eliminate Autumn as a witness, she took a knife from the kitchen, coaxed Autumn into the bathroom, and stabbed her 57 times. Alfaro stole several items and sold them for less than $300 dollars.
Rosie Alfaro was later apprehended. The police found Autumn Wallace's blood on Alfaro's shoes and Alfaro's fingerprints all over the house. Alfaro confessed to the crime. She at first claimed to be high on heroine and cocaine during the murder. But, she later changed her story and said a man forced her to stab Wallace to death. But, she refused to identify the alleged man. Years later, Alfaro said she "had to kill" Autumn because Autumn knew who she was. Rosie Alfaro had lived a very troubled life. She was a drug addict by thirteen, a prostitute by 14, a mother by fifteen and had four children by eighteen.
Rosie Alfaro was put on trial on 1992. The jury found her guilty and deadlocked 10-2 on whether to give her the death penalty. So, there was a mistrial on the sentencing phase. The second jury on the retrial unanimously voted to sentence her to death. Rosie Alfaro was the first woman in Orange County, California to be sentenced to death. She remains on death row to this day awaiting her execution. However, whether there will be an execution date for her remains uncertain due to the moritorium that Gavin Newsom put in place in 2019.
https://murderpedia.org/female.A/a/alfaro-maria.htm
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ca-supreme-court/1299458.html
https://www.ocregister.com/2009/12/11/who-kills-a-9-year-old-girl-for-drugs/