Calif. man charged with killing Saudi college student

LOS ANGELES – Authorities charged a man Monday with fatally stabbing a college student from Saudi Arabia after arranging through Craigslist to buy the victim's expensive German car.

Police Chief Charlie Beck says the man charged in the killing attempted to keep both the car and the purchase price of more than $30,000.

Agustin Rosendo Fernandez, 28, was charged in the death of 23-year-old Abdullah Abdullatif Alkadi, a student at California State University-Northridge in the San Fernando Valley section of the city.

At a news conference, Beck said Fernandez, of Long Beach, was found with the Audi automobile purchased from Alkadi.

The young Saudi man disappeared Sept. 17. His body was found last Thursday near Interstate 10 in Palm Desert, in Riverside County east of Los Angeles.

Fernandez did not enter a plea during an initial court appearance Monday. He was charged with committing a robbery and carjacking as special circumstances in the murder case and using a knife, leaving prosecutors the option of pursuing the death penalty.

Officials charged Fernandez met Alkadi through the online marketplace. Beck said Alkadi put the Audi up for sale in mid-September through Craigslist, and that Fernandez talked to the student over several days about buying the car. The two met at Alkadi's house, the chief said, but he declined to say where Alkadi was killed.

Fernandez killed the student "in an attempt to keep both the Audi and the purchase price," the chief said.

Beck said it is "all too common" for people to be robbed when taking part in online sales.

Alkadi, from Khobar, Saudi Arabia, was majoring in electrical engineering and had been in the United States since 2010, his brother, Ahmed Alkadi, 32, told the Los Angeles Daily News.

"He had a very promising future," the brother said. "He wanted to have a good education in this country. ... He wanted to make his family, his parents and himself proud."

His brother said the student "was always smiling, very kind with people and very sincere about people's emotions."

"Who will guess that a guy who never had a fight before, that has a good impression among the community - the Saudi community and the citizens here - who would imagine that such a thing could happen to him?" the brother said. "But it's not in our hands."

The brother said his brother's car was an Audi S5, with an asking price of more than $35,000.

Dianne Harrison, president of Cal State-Northridge, said the university was assisting in the investigation. "On behalf of the entire campus community, I extend our condolences to his family and friends during this heartbreaking time. Losing such a promising young life is tragic,'' she said in a statement posted on the university's website.

Contributing: Associated Press