WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court refused without comment yesterday to hear the appeal of an Arizona death row inmate convicted of murdering an elderly Tucson woman in 1986.

Alfonso Raymond ''Ben'' Salazar, 32, was convicted by a Pima County Superior Court jury in 1987 of first-degree murder, burglary and kidnapping in the strangulation and beating of 83-year-old Sara Kaplan.

Kaplan's body was found July 26, 1986, in her home with a telephone cord wrapped around her throat. A set of wrought-iron bars had been ripped from the windows, and authorities said she suffered two brain hemorrhages from the beating.

Salazar was scheduled to be executed Feb. 22, but a federal judge in Phoenix issued a stay on Feb. 6 at the request of defense lawyers.

Salazar would have been the fifth person to die since Arizona resumed carrying out the death penalty in 1992.

Carla Ryan, Salazar's attorney, was out of her office yesterday and could not be reached immediately for comment on the high court's action.

Paul McMurdie, chief counsel for the Arizona Attorney General Office's criminal appeals division, did not immediately return calls on the case yesterday.

Michael Wayne Davis, a second Tucson man convicted in the case, was first sentenced to death in 1988.

A judge later ordered a new trial, saying Davis received ineffective counsel. Davis, 30, was reconvicted of first-degree murder and resentenced to life in prison.