Bee reporters answer questions about area crime news, trends and other issues.
QUESTION: Back in 2008, I was almost selected to be on the jury for a man accused of murdering a car salesman. A total of four men went to a car lot and asked one of the salesmen to take them on a test drive in one of the cars. They ended up shooting the man, dumping his body and fleeing in the car. Three of the men were caught and arrested, and the fourth, the one I am talking about, was finally found in Mexico some years later after "America's Most Wanted" aired the story on him and put him on the "10 Most Wanted List". I was wondering what happened in that trial? Was he found guilty, and if so, what was his sentence?
Submitted by: Nicole, Sacramento
ANSWER: Alejandro Santana was sentenced in October 2008 to life in prison without possibility of parole for the carjacking and murder of 49-year-old Thomas "Bucky" Buchholz.
Santana fled to Mexico after the shooting and was arrested in 2005. He was tried and convicted of the Aug. 22, 2000 murder of Buchholz.
Santana's friends Jose Luis Rivera, Anthony Flores Camacho and Theodore Santos were tried on the same charges.
Rivera and Camacho were convicted and are serving life sentences. Santos was acquitted of the more serious crimes and found guilty of being an accessory. He was released after being credited for the two years he served in jail awaiting trial.
Buchholz was shot in the back of the head and his body pushed out of the car into the westbound lanes of the Capital City Freeway between Marconi and El Camino avenues.
According to a story in The Bee, Santana needed parts from the dealer car, a 1996 Chevrolet Camaro, for his Camaro, which had a bad transmission.
Santana, 32, is in Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City. Camacho, 32, is at the California Training Facility in in Soledad, and Rivera, 31, is in High Desert State Prison in Susanville.
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