Appeals Court Rules Salisbury Convict’s Life Sentence Illegal

SALISBURY — A Salisbury man, sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the brutal carjacking and murder of a woman in Wicomico County in 2009, will get a second chance after a state appeals court asserted his sentence was illegal based on a Supreme Court ruling handed down years later.

In 2009, Kenneth Benjamin Alvira, now 23, of Salisbury, was found guilty of first-degree murder, armed carjacking, armed robbery and other offenses for his role in the brutal slaying of a woman left for dead on a rural road in Wicomico County. Alvira and two others, both 19 years old, carjacked a woman, stabbed her and dumped her in a field, according to court documents. The victim, although alive when found, died soon thereafter. At trial, an acquaintance of Alvira testified Alvira admitted to him he killed the victim with a knife and then left her along a dark road.

In 2009, a Wicomico County jury found Alvira guilty of first-degree murder and other charges and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 30 years for the armed carjacking to be served consecutively. However, in 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a separate case a sentence of life without the possibility of parole was not appropriate for juveniles under the age of 18 in most cases.

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