Convicted murderer pleads guilty to second Monterey County cold case homicide.

Alfred Powell's hands were shaking the day he stood in court in 2016 and pleaded not guilty to a first degree murder charge for the 1982 homicide of Sandra McGee Steppuhn, a 32-year-old mother of three from Seaside.

At the time, June 1, 2016, he was already serving time in prison for the March 1983 murder of Pebble Beach hairstylist Suzanne Kay Nixon, age 30.

During a two-day preliminary hearing that followed, both of McGee's former roommates identified Powell as the hitchhiker that McGee gave a ride to the night she disappeared in 1982, according to the Monterey County District Attorney's Office.

She was last seen on Dec. 9, 1982, by a clerk at the Quik Stop on Fremont Street in Monterey, along with an unknown male waiting in the car outside the store. Her father reported her missing two days later.

McGee remained missing for 32 years, until September 2015, when landscapers digging in a yard at a home on Third Street in Monterey found her remains. She was wearing the same clothing she had on the night she disappeared.

It was the same home where Powell had been living in 1982, sleeping in the garage and working as a gardener for the elderly female homeowner.

It was also the same garage where Nixon's body was found in 1983. Powell was arrested on March 4 that year for her murder. He was convicted and began serving a sentence of 15 years to life that September.

Over the years, Powell requested parole numerous times, but was denied every time, Assistant District Attorney Jeannine Pacioni told the Weekly last year. 

Powell's jury trial for McGee's homicide was set to being on Jan. 8, but instead he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on Jan. 5.

He will be sentenced on Jan. 26 by Monterey Superior Court Judge Julie Culver to a term of 15 years to life.

His new sentence will run consecutively with his current sentence for Nixon's murder, which means he will not receive credit for time already served.

Prosecutors stated that based on Powell's age, 62, they are satisfied he will remain in prison for the rest of his life.

Monterey Police told the Weekly in 2017 that Powell remained a "person of interest" in the 1982 disappearance and death of Shelia Chavez. 

Chavez's remains were found 18 days after she disappeared in a ravine behind the Monterey Library. Like McGee and Nixon, Chavez was severely beaten before she died.