After Phone Abruptly Hung Up, a Grisly Crime

Roosevelt Saverino does not remember exactly what he was talking about with his friend Lila Meizell that Wednesday night. He just remembers her saying "Don't hang up" because her landscaper was at the door asking for money.

When Meizell's phone abruptly hung up, Saverino knew that something was wrong. He had his son call police.

Authorities found Meizell, 83, beaten and left for dead in her house, which was set afire. Yesterday, details of the killing were provided by prosecutors during a hearing in which Montgomery County District Judge William G. Simmons ordered three people -- including Meizell's landscaper -- held without bond.

Jose Alvarado, 37, Ramon Alvarado, 32, and Ana Lilian Rodas, 32, all of Silver Spring, face first-degree murder charges in connection with Meizell's death. The Alvarados are also charged with first-degree arson and Rodas with conspiracy to commit arson.

According to charging documents, the scheme began Nov. 19, when Jose Alvarado received a $75 check for landscaping he had done at Meizell's home, in the 10500 block of Inwood Avenue in Wheaton. Jose Alvarado, who periodically worked at the house, added two zeros to the check, the charging documents say, and deposited the check at Provident Bank. He withdrew $7,500 after the check cleared.

Sometime later, Jose Alvarado met with Rodas, his wife, and Ramon Alvarado, his cousin, to tell them what he had done.

At that meeting, prosecutors said, Ramon Alvarado offered to kill Meizell for $1,200, and Rodas suggested that they burn down her house to hide evidence.

On Nov. 26, the Alvarados drove a Dodge minivan to Wheaton, parking just down the street from Meizell's home. Jose Alvarado approached the door, asking for $43 that Meizell owed him from another job. After she handed Jose Alvarado a check, Ramon Alvarado attacked her, grabbing her throat and choking her as he forced his way into her house, according to the court records.

"Ramon admitted that he repeatedly slammed Meizell's head into various pieces of furniture around the living room until she was unconscious and, he believed, dead," the court records say. Ramon Alvarado then lit Meizell's body on fire with gasoline and a match, his own legs and arms catching on fire as he tried to leave.

The medical examiner ruled that Meizell died from burns, smoke inhalation and blunt-force trauma.

Back at their house, Jose Alvarado paid his cousin the $1,200 they agreed upon and gave his wife $1,000, the charging documents say. Prosecutors said all three confessed.

Saverino, Meizell's boyfriend, said in an interview that he did not learn until much later that his girlfriend had been killed. He still hasn't come to grips with her death, and he said he drives by the house occasionally, remembering the good times they had together.

Meizell was Jewish, and he is Catholic, he said; she was a retired employee of the Food and Drug Administration, and he is a retired budget analyst with the Defense Department. They got along fantastically.

"She was just a wonderful person, just so caring, and when I got in her life, that was the most wonderful thing that ever happened," he said. "She was everything to me, and now she's gone."

Of the memories that stand out, perhaps the most significant is the day they met, three years ago at the American Legion building in Wheaton, Saverino said. The-then 82-year-old man saw a woman he thought looked a little sad, and he walked right up to her and kissed her on the cheek.

"She said, 'Boy, I really needed that,' " Saverino recalled.