Suspect faces trial for murder of Mesa high school student

The suspect had a relationship with the victim's mother before she was strangled in 2013.

MESA, Arizona – More than a decade after 14-year-old Claudia Lucero was sexually assaulted and murdered in Mesa, the man accused of her murder is on trial for the crime.

The criminal trial against Alex Madrid for the death of the Westwood High School student in 2013 has recently begun. The 42-year-old defendant is accused of murder, kidnapping and corpse smuggling.

Lucero was sexually assaulted, strangled, and her body was then thrown into a dumpster on Brown Road in Mesa.

Madrid was Lucero's mother's estranged boyfriend and had recently moved out of the family home.

Prosecutors told the jury that Madrid had no reason to be at the family's apartment on the morning of December 5, 2013, when Lucero was home alone getting ready for school.

After “choking off her last breath” from the teenager, Madrid staged her room to make it look like she had run away from home by placing some of her belongings in a storage container, according to prosecutors.

After throwing the victim into a dumpster, the defendant allegedly drove to a court hearing he had scheduled for the same day on a minor summons and then went about his daily routine, prosecutors said.

The trial is expected to resume in the coming weeks in Maricopa County Superior Court. In 2014, prosecutors announced they would seek the death penalty against Madrid if he was found guilty of the crimes.