Kindness repaid with viciousness

Beatrice Alvarez had tried to help the man who police allege hacked her to death with a machete, Alvarez's friends said.

When she first met 34-year-old Victor Orlando Cruz-Garcia and his girlfriend, Maria Erlinda Ulloa, the couple had just moved to the valley from Texas and were homeless and broke.

Alvarez, 46, felt sorry for them, so a few weeks ago, she allowed them to move into her apartment near Bonanza Road and Eastern Avenue, where her 12-year-old daughter and 27-year-old son also lived.

Generosity and compassion came naturally to Alvarez, friends said.

"Even though she was poor, when she had something to give, she would always share," said Eva Rios, wife of the pastor of Alvarez's church.

Alvarez had joined the Asamblea Apostolica church on Owens Avenue near Nellis Boulevard about a year ago, and she quickly became well-liked by its roughly 150 members, the church's pastor, Socorro Rios, said.

She would always talk about God and his love, and she brought new members into the church, he said.

She would volunteer whenever she could, though she was as poor as she was caring, friends said.

About a year ago, she hurt her arm and was no longer able to work at her job, Socorro Rios said. So, to make money, she cooked food and sold it to neighbors and church members.

Rios said Alvarez's son told him that on Thursday "she had plans to make tamales to sell so she could buy them (her children) things for Christmas."

But that night, her apartment was turned into a scene of violence so horrific that a Las Vegas police homicide lieutenant said it was "one of the worst" he has seen.

According to his arrest report, Cruz-Garcia had been drinking that night, angering Ulloa.

He packed his bags at the apartment, threatening to leave. He did eventually leave, but left his bags.

When he returned 15 minutes later, Alvarez didn't want to let him in. The 6-foot 3, 230-pound man forced his way into the apartment, went to the bedroom and retrieved his machete, Ulloa told police.

She said Cruz-Garcia then gave her an "ugly look," and because she knew he had the machete, she ran out of the apartment.

As she fled, she heard yelling and screaming -- and heard Alvarez pleading for someone to call the police.

In the apartment, Cruz-Garcia turned on the woman who had given him a place to live, chopping into her head with the machete, cutting off her left index finger, according to the police report.

Her 27-year-old son, Sergio Casterjon stepped in to try to protect her and Cruz-Garcia struck him at least four times with the heavy-bladed knife, according to police. Casterjon's right arm was nearly severed from his torso and his pinkie was cut off.

Alvarez's 12-year-old daughter, Sylvia Gonzalez, also tried to protect her mother, but had to flee for her life after suffering cuts to her head and face, police said.

Later at University Medical Center, where her brother had his arm and finger reattached, Sylvia told police that when the couple were arguing, her mother told them she didn't want any trouble -- then the machete came out.

In her hospital bedroom Friday, when she was told that her mother had died, "she started crying, she started screaming," Rios said.

"She would say, 'Take me to see my mom.' Take me to see my mom,'" he said. "She felt alone since they had no other family."

Sylvia has no other relatives in the country, according to Rios. She and her brother have family in Mexico, but they are too poor and don't have the paperwork necessary to come to Las Vegas, he said.

A woman who is a member of Alvarez's church has offered to take care of Sylvia. Rios expected Sylvia would be allowed to leave the hospital Monday night.

Casterjon was listed in good condition by hospital officials Monday, but Rios said he was "in bad shape" and wouldn't be discharged for at least several days.

The pastor and his congregants are distributing fliers throughout the neighborhood and around area shopping centers asking for donations to help pay for a cemetery plot and casket for Alvarez.

The money will also go toward covering the family's debts, such as their past-due rent, Rios said.

Rios said he and the others who are trying to help out are just repaying the kindness that Alvarez showed them.

"That's why we see her as our responsibility," Rios said.

When he was arrested Friday, Cruz-Garcia identified himself with an El Salvador identification card, according to his arrest report.

He remains jailed on a charge of murder with a deadly weapon and two counts of attempted murder with a deadly weapon, and he is slated to make his first court appearance in the case Wednesday morning.