Another Idiot Donates His Soul To The State OF Kali-forn-ya?

Unread post by **Common Sense** » February 13th, 2007, 8:56 pm

3 members of Vineland Boyz gang are sentenced

L.A. Times Staff Reports

February 6, 2007

Three members of the Vineland Boyz street gang were sentenced Monday for racketeering and drug trafficking, part of a long-term law enforcement campaign to avenge the killing of a rookie police officer four years ago.

U.S. District Judge John F. Walter sentenced Jesus Contreras and Mariano Meza to 25 years in prison; Manuel Yepiz was given a 20-year sentence.

The sentences brought to four the number of gang members to be sent to prison in the crackdown. Five others convicted in the case have yet to be sentenced.

The campaign against the gang came after the killing of Burbank Police Officer Matthew Pavelka, shot during a traffic stop in November 2003.

Unread post by **Common Sense** » May 30th, 2007, 1:44 pm

[align=center]Santa Ana Gang Member Convicted[/align]

Santa Ana, CA
May 10, 2007

Francisco Rodriguez will faces life in prison without parole when he is sentenced July 30 on racketeering, murder and conspiracy charges.

Rodriguez, 22, of Santa Ana was convicted Wednesday after a 6-week trial in federal court in Santa Ana, prosecutors said. Known as "Trigger,'' Rodriguez murdered Efrain Petatan on Jan. 3, 2004, Assistant United States Attorney Kevin Smith argued.

He was the final defendant in the West Myrtle Street gang who was indicted in June 2005. The other 10 defendants have pleaded guilty to racketeering charges.

Unread post by **Common Sense** » August 7th, 2007, 4:11 pm

July 20, 2007

Female gang member gets life in prison, co-defendant gets 50 years to life

Autumn Star Cruz, 22, cried as she watched the brother of the man she murdered talk about the family's loss. She sat shackled to a chair during her sentencing in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana today.

"My mother's illness has worsened. ... His death left a void in our hearts,'' said Sidney Liufau of Melvin Liufau, 35, killed on Jan. 5, 2005. "It's a shame he was taken from us.''

Melvin Liufau was shot dead in his Garden Grove home after authorities say he got into a dispute with the defendants, who are gang members.

After the victim's brother finished speaking, Judge William Froeberg sentenced Cruz to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Co-defendant Alain Cruz, 24, was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison for the murder today. The two , who were convicted in April, are not related.

Unread post by **Common Sense** » August 13th, 2007, 3:03 pm

Gang Member Sentenced To 50 Years

By CASEY KNAUPP
Staff Writer

August 11, 2007

An admitted gang member was sentenced to 50 years in prison Friday for burglarizing a Tyler home while two young girls were inside.

Juan Alex Fuentes, 18, was found guilty by a jury in 114th District Judge Cynthia Stevens Kent's court July 11 of the first-degree felony engaging in organized criminal activity - committing burglary as a criminal street gang member.The defendant, who elected to have the judge assess his punishment, was sentenced by Judge Kent. He faced up to life in prison.

Veronica Aguilar, 14, testified she was lying in bed, with her younger sister sleeping beside her on Dec. 8, when she heard loud footsteps in the house. Two men came into her bedroom and began going through her drawers. After she asked them what they were doing, they ran out. She said she recognized Fuentes, who had done electrical work in their home a few days earlier. The girl took her 3-year-old sister and crawled out a window before fleeing to a neighbor's house.

The girl's mother testified that jewelry, including wedding rings and a watch, were taken from her bedroom.

According to witnesses, after Fuentes burglarized their house, he and the other man, dressed in the Nortenos gang colors, ran to a nearby house and tried to burglarize another home, Assistant Smith County District Attorney Richard Vance said during the trial.

Fuentes, who had multiple gang-related tattoos, admitted to being a gang member during an interview with police.

Defense attorney Bobby Mims represented Fuentes, while Assistant District Attorney Jason Parrish also prosecuted the case.

Unread post by **Common Sense** » August 13th, 2007, 3:12 pm

Sentenced: Gang Member Who Killed Rival Gets 97 Years

August 2007

SAN DIEGO --

A 20-year-old gang member who fatally shot a rival and wounded a teenager at a National City park last year was sentenced Tuesday to 97 years to life in state prison.

Mark Anthony Estrada was convicted July 10 of first-degree murder and attempted murder, along with weapons and gang allegations.

The defendant gunned down 20-year-old Carlos Berreyeza and wounded 16- year-old Ramon Aguirre on Jan. 18, 2006, at Kimball Park, after gang signs were exchanged across a street, prosecutors said.

Estrada denied committing the murder during his trial, but lashed out when he was convicted, saying he would have killed Aguirre, too, if he hadn't run out of bullets.

Prosecutors theorized that Berreyeza's murder was in retaliation for the killing of one of Estrada's fellow gang members.

Three months after the killing, Estrada and two fellow inmates escaped from a South Bay jail. All were eventually recaptured.

Unread post by **MMRbkaRudog** » August 13th, 2007, 3:23 pm

Common Sense wrote:Gang Member Sentenced To 50 Years

By CASEY KNAUPP
Staff Writer

August 11, 2007

An admitted gang member was sentenced to 50 years in prison Friday for burglarizing a Tyler home while two young girls were inside.

Juan Alex Fuentes, 18, was found guilty by a jury in 114th District Judge Cynthia Stevens Kent's court July 11 of the first-degree felony engaging in organized criminal activity - committing burglary as a criminal street gang member.The defendant, who elected to have the judge assess his punishment, was sentenced by Judge Kent. He faced up to life in prison.

Veronica Aguilar, 14, testified she was lying in bed, with her younger sister sleeping beside her on Dec. 8, when she heard loud footsteps in the house. Two men came into her bedroom and began going through her drawers. After she asked them what they were doing, they ran out. She said she recognized Fuentes, who had done electrical work in their home a few days earlier. The girl took her 3-year-old sister and crawled out a window before fleeing to a neighbor's house.

The girl's mother testified that jewelry, including wedding rings and a watch, were taken from her bedroom.

According to witnesses, after Fuentes burglarized their house, he and the other man, dressed in the Nortenos gang colors, ran to a nearby house and tried to burglarize another home, Assistant Smith County District Attorney Richard Vance said during the trial.

Fuentes, who had multiple gang-related tattoos, admitted to being a gang member during an interview with police.

Defense attorney Bobby Mims represented Fuentes, while Assistant District Attorney Jason Parrish also prosecuted the case.

This happened in Texas.

Unread post by **Common Sense** » August 13th, 2007, 3:29 pm

MMRbkaRudog wrote:This happened in Texas.

You're right. Thanks Rudog.

Unread post by **Common Sense** » August 13th, 2007, 3:31 pm

I should have known, 50 years to life for burgulary. Only in Texas.

Unread post by **$outhPhillypuppet** » August 13th, 2007, 3:59 pm

Common Sense wrote:I should have known, 50 years to life for burgulary. Only in Texas.

for burgulary?
my boi got 2 and a half for assault with a deadly weapon.
thats some shit aint it.

Unread post by **pistolslanga** » August 14th, 2007, 10:40 am

$outhPhillypuppet wrote:
Common Sense wrote:I should have known, 50 years to life for burgulary. Only in Texas.

for burgulary?
my boi got 2 and a half for assault with a deadly weapon.
thats some shit aint it.

wow, 50 years to think about a burglary

this country is full of retards

Unread post by **MMRbkaRudog** » August 15th, 2007, 1:19 pm

$outhPhillypuppet wrote:
Common Sense wrote:I should have known, 50 years to life for burgulary. Only in Texas.

for burgulary?
my boi got 2 and a half for assault with a deadly weapon.
thats some shit aint it.

For burglary while being a gang member. Maybe he had some priors. I still think that is real stiff.

Unread post by **Common Sense** » September 11th, 2007, 10:26 am

Author, ex-gang member convicted

Sept. 11, 2007

TEMECULA, Calif., A former Los Angeles gang member who rose to fame with a tell-all book has been found guilty of robbing a Temecula, Calif., department store.

Colton Simpson, a former member of the Crips gang and author of 2005 book "Inside the Crips: Life Inside L.A.'s Most Notorious Gang," was convicted of planning and driving the getaway car for the March 17, 2003, jewelry heist at Robinsons-May Co., the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

The driver led police on a high speed freeway chase following the robbery, prosecutors said.

Simpson's 10 previous convictions for serious crimes could earn him life in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 28.

"I think there were holes in both cases, but I think there was reasonable doubt," said Simpson's attorney, Richard Briones-Colman. "It was obviously damaging when the book came into evidence."

The prosecution read passages from the book that dealt with Simpson's history with robbery.

"I love doing jewelry licks ... It gets so I go in alone, ask to see a Rolex, grab two, dash out the store, turn them around, and have $8,000 stuffed in my pocket," Simpson wrote in the book.

Unread post by **Common Sense** » September 12th, 2007, 11:07 pm

Gang member sentenced to 231 years to life
(5:25 p.m.)

By The Record

September 10, 2007
STOCKTON -- Having been convicted of carjacking and two counts of attempted murder, Sureño gang member Eliceo Nuñez was sentenced Monday to 231 years and eight months to life in prison. A prosecutor mentioned, too, that he would be required to register as a gang member.

“Everybody knows that,” said Nuñez, who had gang tattoos on his head, face and neck.

Nuñez, who wore glasses, a beard and an orange jumpsuit Monday, bewildered officials when he came from jail to a court hearing tipsy in June. San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Cinda Fox delayed his trial for several hours when she learned he was under the influence of alcohol, apparently having had “pruno,” a jailhouse concoction brewed in cells by fermenting fruit, sugar and bread.

Except for five bailiffs and other court staff, no one attended Nuñez’s sentencing, nor did anyone speak on his behalf. Neither did any victim attend.

Nuñez, 28, was found guilty in May of two counts of attempted murder in a September 2006 shooting, and Nuñez and co-defendant Justin Canon, 30, were found guilty in June of a carjacking last year in the Brookside neighborhood. Canon is scheduled to return to court on Oct. 9 on a motion for a new trial.

For more on this story by staff writer David Siders, read Tuesday’s Record.

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ ... S/70910005

Unread post by **Common Sense** » September 12th, 2007, 11:17 pm

Neighborhood Crips Gang Member Sentenced to 150 Months Federal Prison

09-11-2007

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Neighborhood Crips gang member Melvin Adams was sentenced to 150 months in federal prison, with five (5) years supervised release Monday, by U.S. District Court Judge Takasugi, for violation of Title 21, United States Code, Section 841(a)(1) and 841(b)(1)(A)(iii), Distribution of Cocaine Base (Crack Cocaine).

Special Agent in Charge John A. Torres, of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), is pleased with the sentence imposed on Adams. "Today's sentence reinforces that ATF will not put up with armed gang violence and the drug trade that fuels it," Torres said. "This is an outstanding example of the combined weight of federal, state and local law enforcement joining forces and bringing these gang members to justice."

The arrests of 22 Neighborhood Crips gang members in April of 2007, followed a three-year undercover investigation conducted under the ATF-led Violent Crime Impact Team (VCIT) initiative. VCIT teams seek to identify, disrupt, arrest and prosecute the "worst of the worst" criminals in 29 U.S. cities, including Los Angeles.

The gang's criminal activities have included murder, gun and narcotics trafficking, drive-by shootings, assaults, robbery, counterfeiting, witness retaliation and other intimidation efforts. During the course of the investigation, investigators recovered or purchased 45 firearms, including handguns, shotguns, assault weapons and sawed-off shotguns; 147 rounds of ammunition; 1,834 grams of crack cocaine; 137 grams of powder cocaine; 87 grams of marijuana; 8 grams of methamphetamine; 64 tablets of the illegal narcotic Ecstasy and $47,800 in currency.

More information on ATF, VCIT and other programs to reduce violent crime can be found at http://www.atf.gov .

http://www.streetinsider.com/Press+Rele ... 43551.html

Unread post by **Common Sense** » September 12th, 2007, 11:17 pm

Neighborhood Crips Gang Member Sentenced to 150 Months Federal Prison

09-11-2007

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Neighborhood Crips gang member Melvin Adams was sentenced to 150 months in federal prison, with five (5) years supervised release Monday, by U.S. District Court Judge Takasugi, for violation of Title 21, United States Code, Section 841(a)(1) and 841(b)(1)(A)(iii), Distribution of Cocaine Base (Crack Cocaine).

Special Agent in Charge John A. Torres, of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), is pleased with the sentence imposed on Adams. "Today's sentence reinforces that ATF will not put up with armed gang violence and the drug trade that fuels it," Torres said. "This is an outstanding example of the combined weight of federal, state and local law enforcement joining forces and bringing these gang members to justice."

The arrests of 22 Neighborhood Crips gang members in April of 2007, followed a three-year undercover investigation conducted under the ATF-led Violent Crime Impact Team (VCIT) initiative. VCIT teams seek to identify, disrupt, arrest and prosecute the "worst of the worst" criminals in 29 U.S. cities, including Los Angeles.

The gang's criminal activities have included murder, gun and narcotics trafficking, drive-by shootings, assaults, robbery, counterfeiting, witness retaliation and other intimidation efforts. During the course of the investigation, investigators recovered or purchased 45 firearms, including handguns, shotguns, assault weapons and sawed-off shotguns; 147 rounds of ammunition; 1,834 grams of crack cocaine; 137 grams of powder cocaine; 87 grams of marijuana; 8 grams of methamphetamine; 64 tablets of the illegal narcotic Ecstasy and $47,800 in currency.

More information on ATF, VCIT and other programs to reduce violent crime can be found at http://www.atf.gov .

http://www.streetinsider.com/Press+Rele ... 43551.html

Unread post by **Common Sense** » September 14th, 2007, 1:16 pm

Gang member sentenced in fatal shooting

By Dana Littlefield
STAFF WRITER

September 14, 2007

DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO – A teenage gang member convicted of fatally shooting a 17-year-old girl at an apartment complex in Lincoln Park was sentenced yesterday to 50 years to life in prison.

A San Diego Superior Court jury found Rico Flowers, 17, guilty on May 31 of first-degree murder and other charges in the slaying of Marchannae Johnson of Murrieta. Flowers was tried as an adult.

A co-defendant, Darrell Brown, 28, also was convicted of murder and other charges for assisting Flowers. Brown, described as an older or “original gangster” by prosecutors, was sentenced yesterday to 57 years to life in prison.

During an emotional sentencing hearing yesterday, prosecutors told Judge John Thompson that both defendants had a hand in the shooting Dec. 11, 2005, in the parking lot of the Bay Vista Methodist Heights Apartments.

“What we have is a cold-blooded killer . . . ” said Deputy District Attorney Joe McLaughlin, referring to Flowers. “He made a decision to show what he was about and to kill somebody in the Bay Vistas.”

Marchannae, known as “Marshie” to her friends and family, had gone to the apartments with a group of friends after a party. One of the members of her group lived in the 268-unit complex on Logan Avenue.

Seven shots rang out in the parking lot shortly after 4 a.m., shattering the car's rear window. A bullet struck Marchannae in the heart. She died at a hospital about an hour later.

Witnesses identified Flowers as the shooter.

McLaughlin said during the trial that Flowers, who was 15 at the time, committed the shooting to gain status among his fellow gang members. The Bay Vista complex, the prosecutor said, is a stronghold of a rival gang.

Flowers did not speak in court yesterday on the advice of his lawyer, Deputy Alternate Public Defender John O'Connell.

Prosecutor Mark Amador told the judge yesterday that the shooting would not have happened that morning if Brown hadn't played a significant role. Brown drove Flowers and another teenager to the apartment complex, then helped Flowers leave town by buying him a bus ticket.

Flowers was arrested a few days after the killing in Norfolk, Va., where he was staying with relatives.

Defense attorneys had argued during the trial that there was no evidence Flowers or Brown participated in the shooting or that it was gang-related.

Several relatives spoke lovingly of Marchannae yesterday, calling her “a beautiful girl with a sweet spirit and an infectious smile.”

Some said they drew on their faith to help them cope with the loss.

“Marchannae's shell may be gone, but it was just temporary,” said the girl's mother, Marchelle Price. “Her spirit lives on.”

CS Commentary:
Here is another example of the so called "older gangster" mentoring the young wannabe gangsta. To my young readers out there, be careful to whom you look up to, because who you think is "down", will have you doing 60 years to life in a matter of months. A 17 year old kid lost his life today. Another idiot with nothing better to do, than donate his soul to the State for pennies on the dollar.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib ... owers.html

Unread post by **Common Sense** » September 18th, 2007, 3:38 pm

Vallejo gang member given life sentence
Henry K. Lee

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Sacramento, CA
A federal judge sentenced a Vallejo gang member Friday to life in prison on racketeering charges for participating in four slayings and trafficking in rock cocaine.

Charles Lee White, 36, a member of a Vallejo street gang called Pitch Dark Family, or PDF, was convicted in May by a federal jury in Sacramento. He was part of a conspiracy from 1994 to 2000 involving murder, attempted murder and drug sales. The gang sold narcotics and robbed people in west Vallejo, authorities said. White was convicted of racketeering, conspiracy to engage in racketeering and commission of a violent crime in aid of racketeering activity.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f ... 7S70TT.DTL

green_froggy · Unread post by **green_froggy** » September 23rd, 2007, 3:39 pm

Common Sense wrote:Gang member convicted:
Jose Francisco Valladares found guilty in 2005 stabbing death in Parlier.
By Pablo Lopez / The Fresno Bee

(Updated Thursday, April 6, 2006, 6:19 AM)

A Reedley gang member was convicted Wednesday in Fresno County Superior Court of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of a rival at a party in Parlier in March 2005.

The jury also found that Jose Francisco Valladares, 20, assaulted another victim with a deadly weapon and committed the crimes to promote or benefit a criminal street gang.

He faces a minimum of 16 years to life in prison when he is sentenced May 2.

Valladares was convicted of fatally stabbing Ray Rodarte, 22, and assaulting Rodarte's brother, Fabian Duran, who was stabbed in the arm, during the early hours of March 12, 2005.

Jurors deliberated about four hours on a case investigated by the Fresno County Sheriff's Department in which detective Jose Salinas obtained key interviews from witnesses to the slaying.

Defense lawyers argued that the victims were fighting with at least three people with knives and that it was too dark to see who stabbed them.

Prosecutor Robert Romanacce, however, told jurors in closing arguments Tuesday the brothers were celebrating Duran's 19th birthday when they walked into a party of East Side Reedley Norteño gang members.

Valladares is a validated member of this gang, Romanacce said.

Once partygoers found out that Rodarte was from a rival Sureño gang, they yelled, "Get the scrap." Scrap is a derogatory term for a Sureño.

A woman yelled, "Kill him."

Rodarte left the party, but the partygoers chased him onto the 400 block of Independencia Avenue. At one point, Rodarte, who was not armed, was fighting off nearly 10 rivals, some of them with knives, Romanacce said.

Duran was stabbed trying to help his brother.

Romanacce said Valladares stabbed Rodarte in the chest with a kitchen knife. The blow was so fierce it went through a bone and into the victim's heart, he told jurors.

According to Romanacce, Valladares then yelled: "Remember who did it — Reedley Norte. Remember who put him down."

Common Sense Commentary:
Well in a sense, you're going too..... Mr. Jose Francisco Valladares, your 20 year old, no it all life, is over. You now work for Arnold.

Well very interesting i never though my brothers life would end up on the internet
Fawk for those who oppose of his innocence
He will be free again

Unread post by **Common Sense** » September 24th, 2007, 8:39 am

green_froggy wrote: Well very interesting i never though my brothers life would end up on the internet
Fawk for those who oppose of his innocence
He will be free again

If he's innocent of this murder, let justice prevail for him. The take home message here, and for other cases like this is: Don't get caught up in the streets over B.S. In the end, it's not worth more than a hill of beans.

I've known homies who was really down for their boyz and their hood, but after getting convicted and sentenced to a very long stretch, most of them are finally forgotten, by the same people they were puttin' in work for. The homies grow up and move on. The only one's truly hanging in there, is the family. In some cases, these were the people that were catching the most hell.

Let those learn from this case, and others like it. This can happen to anybody over the weekend.

Unread post by **Common Sense** » September 24th, 2007, 8:42 pm

Oceanside gang member gets 50 years in Seau murder

By Jose Luis Jimenez
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

September 24, 2007

VISTA – An Oceanside gang member was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison Monday for the 2002 murder of a distant relative of former San Diego Chargers linebacker Junior Seau.
In July, a Superior Court jury found Robert McIntosh guilty of fatally shooting Pearl Seau in the garage of her Vandegrift Boulevard apartment.

McIntosh, 26, fled to Corpus Christi, Texas, where he was arrested by Oceanside police nearly three years after the murder. While there, he confessed to the crime, stating he was retaliating for being beaten up earlier that day.

It was widely known that gang members, who were rivals to McIntosh's gang, frequented the apartment Seau shared with her fiance, Junior Malo, even though the couple were not gang members themselves.

On Nov. 12, 2002, McIntosh approached the open garage door, yelled the name of his gang and fired four times, striking Seau twice in the back, according to testimony.

During the trial, McIntosh testified he was innocent and said he made up the earlier confession to cover for a friend. On Monday, McIntosh apologized, but insists he didn't kill anyone.
“I'm sorry for your loss, but I'm innocent,” he told Seau's family and friends gathered in the courtroom.

Judge Joel Pressman rejected a request by defense attorney Al Arena to reduce his client's conviction to second-degree murder.

“It was unbelievable. You perjured yourself here,” Pressman told McIntosh. “There is overwhelming evidence. . . to support the jury conviction of first-degree murder.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Commentary from ordinary citizens:

By HuMan on 09/24/2007 at 1:29 p.m.
Sad really, another life lost to a tragic gang activity, and another black man in prison... really no winners in this incident...
and who do you believe, the accused or the white judge who obviously believes the evidence presented in the white police man's rush to judgment
safe money is on the gang member being "quilty" (quote from "lets go to prison" - 2006)

By sdborn1964 on 09/24/2007 at 1:37 p.m.
I don't understand why he shot her though. She didn't beat him up, did she?

By therock on 09/24/2007 at 1:40 p.m.
wonderful. If any of his fellow bangers read this, congratulatons on your buddy spending 50 years at Folsom Prison. Maybe you imbeciles can do a bonehead move and be his cellie. Try hard!!!!!!!!!!!!

By Tggr on 09/24/2007 at 1:45 p.m.
Come on HuMan you don't really believe this guy is innocent do you?
as far as who wins is concerned, we all do, every bit of trash sent to prison makes the streets safer for law abiding citizens.

By defalt on 09/24/2007 at 2:02 p.m.
Luckily HuMan no white judge or jury was required for this verdict.
Only the dead body of the victim Pearl Seau, and the confession of the killer.

By lucky7 on 09/24/2007 at 2:07 p.m.
The more gang members sent to prison - the better. At least he is off the street & not able to kill anyone else.

By gerwierdo on 09/24/2007 at 2:39 p.m.
50 years is a long time to be Big Bubbas best Butty. Once again some pond scum on the way to the big house. This cowards act is going to cost the taxpayers over $5,000,000 if he stays for the full fifty. Besides that, a productive college educated citizen would be adding that $5 million to the GNP. So in reality this will cost US ten plus million!
Not that he doesn't deserve it, but aren't we doing something wrong here? Couldn't five million pay for lots of after school care and college education for those likely to join gangs? It seems to me that we should try putting these huge dollars up front before these guys turn into murderous creeps. This keeps happening at huge costs to all of us and the only winners are the Prison Guard Unions and huge construction companies that build these prisons.

By elmexican on 09/24/2007 at 3:11 p.m.
Glad he got caught and sentenced..he will actually have a good time in prision:

They have a great exercise program, so he can stay in shape
I hear ite easy ti find a date
shower time is especially fun for all the inmates
he gets to hang out with really cool guys
they get cable TV
and the grand event of the entire stay a very popular game called DROP THE SOAP!!!!

I hope he wins every time!!!!!

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nort ... ntosh.html

Unread post by **Common Sense** » September 27th, 2007, 8:04 am

Oakland Gang Member Convicted Of Murdering 16-Year-Old Girlfriend

September 26, 2007

OAKLAND -- An Oakland gang member and drug dealer has been convicted of first-degree murder for shooting his 16-year-old girlfriend in the head at point-blank range two years ago after she said she wanted to break up with him.

Loeun Sa, 22, faces a state prison term of 50 years to life when Alameda County Superior Court Judge Joan Cartwright sentences him Nov. 6 in connection with the Aug. 27, 2005, death of Nancy Nguyen at 52nd Avenue and East 10th St. in Oakland.

Nguyen was just beginning her senior year at the Life Academy High School of Health and Biosciences in Oakland and would have celebrated her 17th birthday the next week.

In their verdict late Tuesday, jurors also convicted Sa, who told Oakland police that he belongs to the Asian Street Walkers gang, of using a firearm and of being an ex-felon in possession of a gun. He has a prior conviction for possessing marijuana for sale.

Deputy District Attorney Stacie Pettigrew said Sa shot Nguyen after she told him to calm down following an incident in which he fired a gun into the air during a confrontation that involved 10 to 20 people and then told him that their relationship was over.

In his opening statement in Sa's trial, his lawyer, Spencer Strellis, admitted that Sa killed Nguyen but said the key issue in the trial was Sa's state of mind at the time and whether his actions constituted murder or a lesser charge, such as manslaughter.

"It's clear that there was a lover's quarrel and emotions ran high," Strellis said.

Pettigrew said Nguyen and Sa got into a "really loud" argument after Sa fired two shots into the air but their friends tried to ignore it because they figured it was just "a girlfriend-boyfriend spat."

But the prosecutor said Sa then turned toward a group of onlookers and said in Cambodian, "Do you want to see her die?"
Pettigrew said, "Tragically for Nancy, no one took him seriously" and tried to stop him.

The prosecutor said Nguyen, who was Vietnamese-American, probably didn't understand what Sa was saying so "she didn't know what was coming."

Pettigrew said the area where the shooting occurred is heavily Cambodian-American and there's a Cambodian temple nearby.

Pettigrew said Sa dragged Nguyen around the corner to a deserted cul-de-sac and a few moments later, witnesses heard Nguyen say to Sa, "Why are you hitting me? It's over."

Pettigrew said the witnesses then heard Sa tell Nguyen, "You can't run from me. You can't get away."

After that, the witnesses heard the gunshot that took Nguyen's life, Pettigrew said.

The prosecutor said Nguyen and Sa had dated for about seven months and there had been no prior indication that they'd had problems or that she had wanted to break up with him.

Strellis couldn't be reached for comment on the jury's verdict.
http://www.ktvu.com/news/14213618/detail.html

Unread post by **Common Sense** » September 28th, 2007, 3:53 pm

Gang Member Sentenced In Jealousy-Over-Girl Stabbing

September 26, 2007

SAN DIEGO -- A gang member who was 14 when he ordered and participated in the beating and fatal stabbing of a 17-year-old boy, out of jealously over a girl, was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years to life in prison.

Miguel "Mickey" Quintana, now 18, was sentenced by Judge Peter Deddeh after the judge denied his request to withdraw his guilty plea.

Quintana pleaded guilty March 12 to second-degree murder and a street gang allegation and agreed to be sentenced to the possible life term.

Last month, Quintana told the judge that he could not come to terms with spending the rest of his life in prison and wanted to withdraw his plea.

On the day of his guilty plea, Quintana told Deddeh that he ordered the July 5, 2004, attack on Juan Carlos Santana and took part in the assault, which resulted in the death of the Hoover High student.

Two other "junior" gang members, Sergio Aguilar and Ruben Covarrubias, pleaded guilty in April 2005 and were sentenced to prison.

Kun Tep testified at an August 2004 preliminary hearing that a girl he knew came into his photography studio on University Avenue on the day of the killing, accompanied by a girlfriend and the victim.

Tep said he took a photo of the trio and told them to return in 35 minutes.

The three returned with three other people, Tep said. One of them, Quintana, was kissing and hugging one of the girls, the witness said.

Quintana asked for a free photograph of the girl, but Tep said he declined.

About that time, Tep said he noticed Aguilar staring down, or "mad-dogging," Santana in the store, and that led to the attack.

Quintana fled to Mexico and was arrested in December 2006. He was charged as an adult.
http://www.10news.com/news/14210591/detail.html

Unread post by **Common Sense** » October 3rd, 2007, 8:27 am

This is an old case, but it's interesting. "Norteno get's roasted by the judge and victims family, and then got the book thrown at him".

Dec 16, 2006

Gang member gets life in prison

Bay City News

A San Mateo County Superior Court judge had harsh words for 20-year-old Jesus Antonio Ponce Friday as he sentenced him to life in prison for the 2004 killing of a San Mateo man tragically mistaken for a rival gang member.

"Gang violence in our community, in San Mateo County, will never be tolerated,'' Judge Robert Foiles told Ponce.

Ponce and two other alleged Norteno gang members from San Mateo were found guilty earlier this year in the fatal beating and shooting of 24-year-old Jaime Meza at the Marina Plaza Shopping Center early in the morning of Nov. 14, 2004.

After getting off work that morning, Meza had stopped at a liquor store at the shopping center on his way home to his wife and infant child when he was confronted by Ponce, then 18, Jesus Yuriar, 17, and Miguel Adolfo Hernandez, 19.

The three alleged Nortenos, who wear red, believed Meza was a rival Sureno gang member because he was wearing blue, according to prosecutors, and began punching and screaming at Meza. Ponce then shot Meza as he tried to escape in his car.

Ponce was found guilty of first-degree murder on Oct. 20. Yuriar, now 19, and Hernandez, now 21, both earlier pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter for their roles in the attack, and were sentenced to 11 years in prison each.

Ponce, Friday wearing the red uniform of an inmate, voiced a brief apology to the victim's family and his own family, and then stood impassively as prosecutor Morris Maya read a letter to the court from Meza's widow.

The emotional and often angry letter described Jaime Meza as a hardworking family man, happily married with a beautiful new baby girl - up until the day the family was torn apart by a senseless and violent act.

The couple was about to celebrate their first wedding anniversary when Meza was murdered, "thanks to you and your stupid friends,'' she wrote, addressing Ponce directly, "thinking that the world was red, and it was yours.''

"Who will explain to my daughter why she doesn't have a daddy?'' she wrote, adding that she intends to use any financial restitution to save for her daughter's future and her education.

"I am finally seeing justice for what you did to my husband,'' the letter went on. In a final statement laden with bitterness, Meza's widow wrote, "You really have destroyed my life. And by the way, I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.''

Ponce's attorney Eric Liberman acknowledged that Ponce's conduct was "inexcusable,'' but said he didn't believe Ponce was the "devil'' people made him out to be during his trial.

Prosecutor Morris Maya said that Ponce "believed he could be somebody'' by joining a gang, but noted that none of his fellow gang members were in court with him Friday.

"You have destroyed a family, you have destroyed a man's life, all in the name of a gang that is not here to support you and has no value to the community,'' Foiles declared. "Because of your ridiculous hatred of a rival gang, the victim is dead and you will be going to prison for the rest of your natural life,'' he said.

Foiles sentenced Ponce to life in prison without the possibility of parole - plus an additional 25 years to life for the special allegation of use of a firearm causing great bodily injury - as well as monetary restitution to Meza's family.

Unread post by **Common Sense** » October 23rd, 2007, 8:03 am

Gang member convicted in murder-for-hire death of Buena Park man

Times Staff
October 19, 2007

Jurors have convicted a man for recruiting gang members to kill a Buena Park man in a murder-for-hire plot hatched by the victim’s sister.

Forty-year-old Anthony Navarro of Los Angeles was found guilty Thursday of first-degree murder committed during an attempted robbery and kidnapping for the benefit of his Pacoima gang.

Jurors will begin the penalty phase of his trial Wednesday to decide if Navarro should be sentenced to death or life in prison without the possibility of parole for his role in the Oct. 2, 2002, killing of David Montemayor.

Montemayor was targeted for death by his sister Deborah Perna, who believed Montemayor was stealing from the family business and was about to take over with the retirement of their father.

Perna, the office manager of the family's Rancho Dominguez trucking firm, asked her secretary to arrange for Navarro, a member of the Pacoima Flats street gang, to kill Montemayor in exchange for robbing him and keeping the cash. She had said that her brother kept at least $10,000 in cash at his home.

After kidnapping Montemayor, Navarro and three other gang members drove the victim to his home to get the money, prosecutors said.

Montemayor, a married father of three, was shot in the head and killed about a mile from his house after he apparently broke free and tried to run.

Perna was convicted in 2005 and is serving life.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/orang ... ons-orange

Unread post by **Common Sense** » October 29th, 2007, 3:47 pm

Salinas Gang Member Sentenced For 2004 Murder

CBS 5 CrimeWatch
Oct 26, 2007

SALINAS A Norteno gang member from Salinas has been sentenced to 65 years to life in prison for killing one man and shooting at four other people, including a baby, in an August 2004 gang-related incident.

Mario Trujillo, 22, was sentenced Thursday by Monterey County Superior Court Judge Richard Curtis after being convicted by a jury in July on first-degree murder, shooting at an occupied vehicle and street terrorism charges.

According to prosecutors, Trujillo approached Juan Gomez-Rava, 20, and his companions on the corner of Pacific Street and Del Monte Avenue in Salinas on Aug. 28, 2004, while they were replacing a car's taillight. He asked if they were gang-affiliated. They replied that they were not and just liked to race cars.

Unread post by **Common Sense** » November 3rd, 2007, 3:08 pm

Gang leader Timothy McGhee convicted of murders

BY TONY CASTRO, Staff Writer
10/26/2007 05:58:35 AM PDT

Timothy Joseph McGhee, 34, leader of the Toonerville gang in Atwater Village, was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder and four of attempted murder. His autobiographical notebook of gang lyrics in which he boasted about his crimes proved vital in the conviction.

McGhee showed no emotion in Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry's courtroom when the verdicts were read. His mother appeared distraught when she learned the outcome and declined comment.

Perry immediately set penalty-phase arguments and testimony to begin this morning.

"He was convicted of three murders and four attempts, and he was convicted of shooting personally in four different shootings over a four-year period," Deputy District Attorney Hoon Chun said. "We will definitely be asking for the death sentence."

Meanwhile, the verdicts came as welcome and surprising news in Atwater Village, where residents said they feared McGhee would get off after an almost six-year wait for the cases to come to trial - and nearly two weeks of deliberations.

"Everyone here was saying to each other, `He's getting out! He's getting out!" said Lenore Solis, treasurer of the Atwater Village Neighborhood Council and a longtime resident. Since McGhee's capture in 2003 in Arizona, crime has declined in the area, residents and police say. The arrest came only after City Councilman Eric Garcetti posted a $50,000 reward and a U.S. Marshal's Service nationwide hunt.

"Let's face it, he was responsible for a lot of the killings and the violence," Solis said. "His mother was going around passing out leaflets asking for people to pray for her son and to get support for him. I feel for her, but I also feel for all the mothers of his victims. This is all a sad commentary on our society."

The lengthy deliberations - Thursday marked the ninth day - were due in part to issues with a lone juror Perry removed from the panel a week ago and replaced with an alternate. Jurors were also having to weigh the testimony of prosecution witnesses - some of them gang members with pending cases of their own - that defense attorney H. Clay Jacke Jr. said were motivated by plea deals from prosecutors.

The murder convictions were for the Oct. 14, 1997, killing of Ronald Martin; the June 3, 2000, slaying of 16-year-old Ryan Gonzalez; and the Nov. 9, 2001, slaying of Margie Mendoza, the girlfriend of a rival gang member and a 26-year-old mother of three.

McGhee is believed to have killed Gonzales simply because he thought Atwater Village wasn't big enough for two people with the same nickname, "Huero" - "light-skinned" in Spanish.

In addition to his conviction of attempting to murder LAPD Officers Thomas Baker and Carlos Langarica, McGhee was found guilty of trying to kill Duane Natividad and Erica Rhee. He was acquitted of attempting to kill Pedro Sanchez and Juan Cardiel.

Three of McGhee's fellow Toonerville gang members - Mario "Little Boy" Aleman, Ramon "Chubbs" Maldonado and Joseph "Little Respect" Aghazadeh - were previously convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life terms in the July 4, 2000, attempted murders of Baker and Langarica during a chase.

The prosecution did run into challenges in trying to get certain witnesses to testify accurately, including Cardiel and Sanchez, who said they couldn't remember who shot them. Chun said it was indicative of the wave of fear and intimidation exerted by McGhee even after his capture.

"Witness protection won't work/ Realize your ratt ain't going to make it to the stand/ To identifie\ the man shootin up the ham/ Can't promise protection when you can't protect yourself," he wrote in one set of lyrics introduced in his trial.

Details in McGhee's rap lyrics, according to authorities, corresponded to details in no fewer than three of the killings to which McGhee has been connected.

His defense team had argued the notebook should not be admitted into evidence because it contained the notation in big letters that "everything in this book is a work of fiction."

But Chun successfully countered that McGhee's "autobiographical gang writings in the notebook are self-authenticating because they consistently identify the author as having characteristics unique to defendant McGee" - the tattoos, the nicknames, his gang affiliations, his Atwater roots, his physical description and being a fugitive.

"They are his words," Chun said. "They are his deeds."

http://www.dailynews.com/ci_7283239?source=rss

Unread post by **Common Sense** » November 6th, 2007, 8:57 am

Vineland Boyz Gang Member Sentenced To Life In Prison

November 5, 2007

LOS ANGELES -- A member of the once-powerful Vineland Boyz gang, who admitted his involvement in the 2003 murder of a teenage girl and other crimes to avoid the death penalty, was sentenced Monday to life in federal prison.

In handing down the life term for 22-year-old Javier Covarrubias of Sun Valley, U.S. District Judge John Walter called the young man's crimes "most heinous and most despicable."

Covarrubias sat stoically, rocking back and forth in his chair at times, as his sentence was handed down.

When the judge asked him if he had anything to say, Covarrubias replied, "I'm innocent. That's all."

Family members of 16-year-old Martha Puebla sat in a row in the back of the gallery, but said nothing.

On July 25, while attorneys were selecting a jury for his trial, Covarrubias agreed to plead guilty to involvement in the murder of Puebla, whom Los Angeles police planned to call as a witness against a member of the gang.

In exchange for his guilty plea, the U.S. Attorney's Office agreed not to seek the death penalty against him.

Walter delayed Monday morning's sentencing hearing for one hour, after Covarrubias tried to vacate his guilty plea -- against the advice of his attorneys.

Covarrubias said he was innocent and only pleaded guilty to spare his family from the hardship of a trial.

"Quite frankly, I don't believe you," the judge responded.

Walter sentenced the young man to a total of three life terms. The others were for racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.

Covarrubias also got a 20-year sentence for the attempted murder of Martin Martinez, who was shot and left paralyzed in October 2004, and 10 years for discharging a firearm in relation to his gang activities.

The 10-year term will run consecutively to the other sentences, which will run concurrently, the judge said.

Founded in the 1980s by members of a San Fernando Valley-area football team, the Vineland Boyz was one of the most prominent -- and violent -- street gangs in the communities of Burbank, Sylmar and Sunland.

According to a 2005 federal indictment, the gang traded in narcotics and high-end illegal weapons and stole expensive appliances from construction sites.

The gang allied itself with the Mexican Mafia prison gang to increase its narcotics trade and control large swaths of the San Fernando Valley, according to the indictment.

The Vineland Boyz became a major target for local law enforcement when reputed member David Garcia allegedly gunned down Burbank police Officer Matthew Pavelka near Bob Hope Airport in November 2003. Garcia fled across the U.S.-Mexico border and was caught about two weeks later.

The federal racketeering case against the gang began in June 2005, when federal and local law enforcement staged pre-dawn raids against Vineland Boyz members. In total, 49 Vineland Boyz members were indicted under federal racketeering laws.

Rafael Yepiz, a Reseda resident who was one of the gang's leaders, was convicted and sentenced in April to life in prison.
http://www.knbc.com/news/14516250/detai ... a&psp=news

Unread post by **Common Sense** » November 6th, 2007, 9:10 am

People wonder why RPV kid 'chose to be a gang member'
Killing turns a limitless horizon to a life of restrictions.

Originally published Saturday, November 03, 2007
Updated Monday, November 05, 2007

By Denise Nix
Staff Writer

Photographs of Phillip Dorsett, his friends and younger brother flashing gang signs were set in matting and framed.

They were displayed on his bedroom desk inside his parents' million-dollar Rancho Palos Verdes home, which sits atop a hill and offers ocean views.

Dorsett, 21, seemingly, could have had anything or done anything.

Instead, he's spending 40 years to life in prison for a gang-related murder.

"Nobody knew how a kid from Rancho Palos Verdes ends up down in Inglewood, in the heart of the ghetto," said Mike Valento, a sheriff's homicide detective.

"No one really has the answer, and Phillip never told us," he said.

Dorsett, who graduated from Palos Verdes Peninsula High School in 2004, became involved with an Inglewood-based Latino gang in his early teens, Valento said.

He may have been introduced to the group through a friend who lived in his neighborhood.

Dorsett's brother, Jaret Dorsett, joined the same gang and is wanted on suspicion of a 2003 gang-related attempted killing in Inglewood, Valento added.

Valento believes the younger Dorsett is in Mexico - which is where his older brother fled after he killed 18-year-old Jesse Fujino on June 17, 2005.

It's a strange twist for the sons of a car dealership manager father, who is white, and an attorney mother, who is Asian.

Their mother, Dana Dorsett, who argued to a Torrance Superior Court judge for a new trial and a reduced sentence on behalf of her eldest son on Oct. 26, declined to comment about her son.

Dorsett's trial attorney, Edi Faal, did not return a telephone message.

The night of the shooting, Dorsett and his friends were visiting a friend in the 1000 block of 95th Street, near Vermont Avenue.

Around 9 p.m., they were hanging out with some teenage girls in Dorsett's minivan, drinking and talking, when three men from two different gangs pulled up behind them, according to Valento.

One of the men urinated on the back of the van, and words were exchanged.

The men walked past Dorsett and his friends to a nearby apartment, but then returned. When they did, Fujino broke off from the group and continued the confrontation with Dorsett and his friends.

In a typical precursor to gang violence, Fujino asked Dorsett's group where they were from.

The argument escalated, and Dorsett grabbed a handgun from the back of the minivan and pointed it at Fujino.

Fujino dared Dorsett to shoot him, and he did.

"Phillip was called out on the carpet," said Valento, the homicide detective. "He was trying to act bad in front of these girls, and now a rival gang member is challenging him to shoot, so he pulled the trigger."

Fujino was shot in the temple. During Dorsett's trial in Torrance Superior Court, that the gun was less than two feet from Fujino when it was fired.

There was no evidence Fujino was armed. He died the next morning.

However, Dorsett testified that he shot Fujino in self-defense after the group of gang members boxed him in and Fujino fired once or twice at him, and missed.

After the shooting, everyone ran, except Dorsett, who drove away in the minivan. Nobody cooperated with the initial investigation, which is not unusual in a gang-related crime where witnesses who snitch are often retaliated against, Valento said.

Eventually, though, one of the girls identified Dorsett, who goes by the moniker "Chino," to detectives.

By then, though, Dorsett had fled to Mexico, according to evidence later collected from his house.

With Dorsett gone, the investigation stalled. Until, on a chance, Valento spotted the minivan a few weeks later back in the driveway of the Dorsett home.

Dorsett wasn't arrested until Sept. 9, 2005, when he was pulled over by a Hawthorne police officer. Several days later, detectives searched his home.

In his room, they found the photographs of the gang members and notebooks filled with gang writings, Valento said.

They also found Dorsett's passport; paperwork for car insurance bought in Mexico on June 21, 2005, for the minivan; and a plane ticket for the same day in Dorsett's name from Tijuana to Puerto Vallarta, Valento added.

experts testified Young girls threatened

Meanwhile, sometime after murder charges were filed against Dorsett, two girls who were in the van and witnessed the shooting were threatened by members of Dorsett's gang.

The girls, both in their early teens, were lured to a motel room in Lawndale.Inside the room, gang member Steve Uitz, 28, was waiting with a blow torch and a hot iron, according to Valento.

Uitz told the girls that he was going to get the witness list from Dorsett's father and, if their names were on it, they would be killed, the girls testified during Dorsett's trial.

Valento and Deputy District Attorney Cindy Barnes said the prosecution was scheduled to turn over evidence, including the witness list, to the defense at an upcoming hearing.

Barnes said that, although the inference to Jeffrey Dorsett is logical, there is no evidence he was behind the threats.

"That is what the girls were told, and the information they were told was correct," Barnes said.

The girls, who were hit in the motel room, were let go after about an hour. Uitz was later arrested and charged as a co-defendant in Dorsett's case, court records show.

In September, he pleaded no contest to several charges, including a count of dissuading a witness by force or threat, and was sentenced to more than 16 years and eight months in prison, according to Barnes.

The two girls were placed in protective custody, and testified against Dorsett during his trial, which ended with his conviction July 11.

Last month, Dorsett's mother and defense attorney argued that prosecutorial and judicial misconduct were grounds for a new trial.

Faal argued it was wrong to show the jury evidence that Dorsett was still in a gang. The jury saw a photograph of Dorsett and a group of men who were making gang signs and a jail booking sheet on which Dorsett wrote his gang affiliation.

Faal said the prosecutor wanted that evidence presented to bias the jury.

He noted that Dorsett, who has grown his hair past his collar, had become a licensed security guard and was working as a laborer in Riverside, where he was living with another family.

Dorsett's mother argued it was wrong for Judge Mark Arnold to keep out evidence that the people with Fujino the night he was shot were gang members.

Had the jury known, she said, then they would have understood the fear her son felt when he fired the gun.

But Arnold sided with Barnes, who said their affiliations were irrelevant because the only thing that mattered was what the defendant thought.

Victim's sisters speak

After Arnold denied the new trial motions, one of the murder victim's two sisters, Rena Fujino, spoke in court.

"My mom is grateful. Thank God they found him," she said through tears. "He doesn't deserve to be on the streets."

She said all her brother's accomplishments, including a high school diploma, were to make their mother happy.

"No money in the world was going to be able to let him be free," she said of Dorsett. "What we're feeling, one day his mother and father will feel.

" (My brother) was a great, great man, and he was gonna be somebody in life, but you took that away from us. We are never gonna forgive you. Ever. Ever."

Although his attorney held him back and told him to be quiet, Dorsett became agitated and asked to speak.

As bailiffs moved closer, including one with a stun gun, Dorsett yelled: "I am not a coward! I did not kill an unarmed man!"

In an interview later, Rena Fujino, 24, said her family didn't know until the trial began that her brother's killer was "a rich kid over here causing trouble."

"What was he thinking?" she wondered.

During the trial, she said, Dorsett's mother generally remained quiet, sitting with her head down. His father did most of the interacting with their son and his lawyer.

Barnes, who prosecutes gang cases from the Lennox area, said this is a unique situation. Most people join gangs out of necessity - because they live in a neighborhood and need protection, or they have family members who are in the gang, Barnes said.

"What he was doing, he had to seek it out," he said.

"He knew better. He had options, and he chose to be a gang member," Barnes said. "I don't know if he's a bad seed or watched too much MTV, but whatever it was, he made that choice."
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/article ... wAll=y&c=y

Unread post by **Common Sense** » November 26th, 2007, 7:29 pm

Reputed gang member convicted of L.A. freeway killing

ASSOCIATED PRESS

November 20, 2007

LOS ANGELES – A reputed gang member was convicted Tuesday of murder in the daytime shooting of a college student on a freeway even though he was not the triggerman.
Superior Court jurors deliberated about a day before convicting D'andre Keyshaun Moorer of first-degree murder with the special circumstance that the murder occurred during a shooting from a vehicle.

The panel also found true that the crime was committed for the benefit of a criminal street gang and that there was a discharge of a firearm, causing death.
The panel reached its verdict Monday but it was sealed until Tuesday.

Moorer, 29, could face life in prison without parole when he is sentenced Dec. 21. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty.

Moorer's attorney, Christopher Darden, declined to comment after the verdict.

Authorities said Moorer was driving two years ago when shots from his car killed Michael Ryan Livingston, 20, of Long Beach. The West Los Angeles College student was shot in the head on March 29, 2005, while driving on the Harbor Freeway.

“If you participate in the overall crime, you can still be charged with murder,” district attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said.

Prosecutors allege that the gunman was Moorer's passenger, Donald Ray Shorts, 27. He is awaiting trial for murder and remains jailed in San Bernardino County on unrelated charges.

Authorities originally said road rage was the motive for the attack but prosecutor Victor Avila said Tuesday that the shooting was gang-related.

“It appears that both defendants perceived the victim to be from a rival gang because of hand signs and decided to eliminate the victim,” he said
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/stat ... oting.html

Unread post by **Common Sense** » January 8th, 2008, 9:43 am

Gang member sentenced to life for local murder

December 15, 2007

By: JOHN HALL - Staff Writer

FRENCH VALLEY -- A Lake Elsinore gang member was sentenced to life in prison Friday for the April 2003 murder of a man in the parking lot of a Good Hope market.

Enrique Guzman Ortega, 28, was convicted by a Southwest Justice Center jury in June of the first-degree murder of Valentin Romero.

Romero was shot to death one time in the face as he stood outside Harb's Market in Good Hope.

Jurors also found Guzman guilty of the attempted murder of two other men in a separate shooting in Lake Elsinore during which no one was killed.

Guzman must serve a sentence of 52 years in state prison, then another sentence of 85 years to life before he begins his sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, said Riverside County Superior Court Judge Judith Clark.

All of Guzman's crimes were committed to benefit or at the direction of a criminal street gang, jurors decided.

"It is clear to this court that Mr. Ortega chose to engage in a series of gang activities," Clark said before announcing the sentence.

In this case, the judge added, Romero was "a very unfortunate victim" who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

As Clark spent several minutes listing the sentence that -- barring a successful appeal -- puts him behind bars for the rest of his life, Ortega laughed and smiled as he spoke with his defense attorney.

Just a few minutes earlier, Romero's sister, Francis Hernandez, spoke at the hearing and pleaded with the judge to make sure Ortega could never hurt someone again.

As she spoke, a portrait she brought with her of Romero was displayed on a screen in the courtroom.

"I still can't believe he's gone," Hernandez said.

She said she was devastated seeing her brother in the hospital "fighting for his life" after being shot.

Their mother lives in Mexico and had some trouble getting documents allowing her to come to the United States to see her dying son, Hernandez said.

"By the time she got to the hospital, my brother had passed away," she said. "The way my mother cried broke my heart."

Ortega's attorney, James Bender, asked the judge to consider modifying the jury's verdicts on the murder count and two attempted murder counts, saying jurors were "overwhelmed by the gang evidence" and that had a prejudicial impact.

Clark denied that request, saying that it was obvious to her that the jury carefully examined the evidence and came to a correct verdict. An example of the jury's thoughtful examination was the fact that jurors acquitted Ortega of another count, she said.

The murder trial began with four defendants and three juries. However, only Ortega's case ended up in the hands of jurors.

Mario Jose Hernandez, 25, entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors in June. He pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and admitted the crime was committed to benefit a criminal street gang.

Hernandez was sentenced to time served, about four years, and was called by the prosecution to testify in Ortega's case.

In the middle of the trial, Clark acquitted Ruben Anthony Aguirre, 25, who is Hernandez's cousin, and Jose Alfonso Urrutia, 21, saying there was insufficient evidence to prove the case against them beyond a reasonable doubt.

Although acquitted of the murder, Urrutia was convicted by his jury of attempted murder in connection with a Lake Elsinore gang-related shooting.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/12 ... _14_07.txt

Unread post by **Common Sense** » March 5th, 2008, 7:59 pm

Gang member sentenced in bus stop slaying

By JOHN F. BERRY
The Press-Enterprise

SAN BERNARDINO - A San Bernardino gang member was sent to prison this morning for randomly shooting a man at a Highland bus stop in 2005 so he could bolster his "Terminator" moniker and earn a teardrop tattoo for the killing.

Michael Thomas Crawford, 21, was convicted Jan. 23 of first-degree murder for shooting 50-year-old Gaspar Perez Beltran in his cheek about 7:30 a.m. on March 26, 2005.

San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Colin Bilash sentenced Crawford to a 60-year-to-life term as well as a $7,000 fine -- which could be increased depending on how much counseling the victim's unidentified niece, traumatized by the murder, might need.

"She is afraid to leave the house," Crawford's sentencing report said. "She is very sad and cries a lot. She was only 11 years old when her great uncle was killed."

In court this morning, Crawford asked Judge Bilash whether he could start his appeal "right now."

Outside the courtroom, Deputy District Attorney Lisa Rogan said the victim's relatives did not attend the sentencing because they fear for their safety.

During the trial, Rogan told jurors that Crawford shot Beltran after spotting an opportunity to enhance his gang-name while riding with friends near the west Highland intersection of Del Rosa Drive and East Ninth Street.

Crawford could earn a teardrop, a status symbol in his San Bernardino-based gang, by killing someone or going to prison, she said.

This morning, Rogan said outside the courtroom that gangs normally kill in connection with other crimes, such as drugs or robberies.

"This one was simply for the notoriety of his name as "Terminator" and his teardrop," Rogan said. "Even in the gang world, there seems to be some reason behind a killing."

An analysis within the sentencing report struggled with the reasoning behind a crime it labeled as a "cold, callous, malicious attack upon another human being."

"(Crawford) has taken no responsibility for his murder," it said. "He has demonstrated no respect for the rules as set by society or the life of the victim."

The sentencing report said Crawford, since his arrest shortly after the killing, has been disciplined for fighting and lying as well as switching cells and weapons fashioning.

Two gang members riding with Crawford -- Lee Alex Flaherty and Ray Cornell Nelson, both 21 -- have accepted plea agreements and testified for the prosecution during his trial.

Nelson accepted his agreement on Jan. 27, 2006, records show. He pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and carrying out a crime to benefit a criminal street gang, Rogan said last month. He faces up to 22 years in prison, she said.

Flaherty agreed to his deal about one week before Crawford's trial began Jan. 14, records show.

He pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact and carrying out a crime to benefit a criminal street gang, Rogan said. He faces up to seven years in prison, she said.

Both are scheduled for sentencing on March 6.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stor ... 9cef1.html

Unread post by **Common Sense** » March 13th, 2008, 6:59 am

Gang member guilty in '06 killing

March 6, 2008

VAN NUYS - After deliberating just three hours, a jury Wednesday convicted a gang member of first-degree murder in the 2006 killing of a former LAPD Explorer in a case of mistaken identity.

Ramiro Munoz faces 60 years to life in prison when he is sentenced April 16 for killing Marco Juarez. He showed no emotion while his family sobbed in the courtroom as the verdict was read.

Prosecutors presented an "extraordinarily strong case," said Los Angeles police Detective James Nuttall, citing the testimony of eyewitnesses, including a fellow gang member. The witnesses have since been relocated.

Munoz was accused of standing on Calvert Street on April 21, 2006, and firing a bullet through a car being driven by Juarez as he had just made a U-turn after dropping off friends, prosecutors said. The bullet pierced Juarez's head behind his right ear. He died at a hospital.

Prosecutors said Munoz, who was arrested May 4, 2006, thought Juarez was a member of a rival gang.

"I'm surprised more than anything," said Munoz's attorney, Felix Martinez. "I didn't think the prosecution proved the case beyond a reasonable doubt."

His client was 15 at the time of the shooting and was tried as an adult. His contention is that somebody else did the shooting, someone who the attorney said hasn't been identified.

"Nobody wants to talk," Martinez said.

Juarez had participated in the LAPD's Explorer program, which introduces youths
to a career in law enforcement.
Although he was no longer in the program when he was killed, he wanted to be an architect, government worker or cop, said the case's prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Paul Nunez.
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_8468290