Death Tied to Gang Brings Guilty Verdict

An 18-year-old Pacoima gang member was found guilty Thursday of first-degree murder for the drive-by shooting of a North Hollywood teen-ager who had left gang life to work with a community service group.

After three days of deliberation, a San Fernando Superior Court jury convicted Ernesto Tellez of shooting John Callaway, 17, in Sun Valley on Sept. 26, 1984.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth Loveman argued during the one-week trial that Tellez, a member of the 18th Street gang, killed Callaway in a revenge attack against another gang, called Sol Trece, for a murder several weeks before of an 18th Street gang member.

Friends of Callaway testified during the trial that the youth joined Sol Trece when he was in junior high school but that he stopped associating with the gang when he joined the Communicators, an anti-gang, community service group at North Hollywood High School.

During his gang affiliation and afterward, however, Callaway frequently won brief fights with 18th Street gang members, witnesses testified.

“Instead of turning the other cheek, John would just wade into them,” Callaway’s father, Jim, said after the verdict was pronounced. “He just didn’t like them, period. And he just got in too deep against them, I guess, and they figured he was a threat to them and had to be eliminated.”

The elder Callaway, who attended most of the trial, said he was surprised when he learned of his son’s former gang involvement.

“I don’t think he really was that deep into the gangs,” Callaway said. “John was the kind of guy that had a lot of friends. He was very popular in school, and I think there was jealousy on the part of the conspirators because he was so popular and so well-liked and he had a nice car.”

Witnesses testified during the trial that 18th Street gang members began to speak of Callaway in the past tense at least a week before he was murdered. A sister of a member of the gang testified that her brother told her several days before the killing to stay away from Callaway because it was “too dangerous” to be around him.

Moments after Callaway dropped off his younger brother at Sun Valley Junior High School on Sept. 26, he was shot through the head by the passenger in a vehicle that had pulled alongside his 1954 Chevrolet, police said.

Jurors heard a tape recording made by police in which Tellez said that he was in the murder car and that he handed the gun to another youth, who shot Callaway. Officers testified that he later confessed to shooting Callaway himself.

During the trial, however, Tellez recanted those confessions, saying the officers “scared” him into admitting his involvement.

Neighbors of Tellez testified that he could not have been in the murder car because he had just finished breakfast with them at least four miles from the shooting at the time it took place.

Loveman argued that only two youths were in the car and that witnesses testified that shots were fired from the passenger side. Charges were never filed against the driver, a minor whose name was not released, because prosecutors could not gather enough evidence against him, Loveman said.

“It was a cowardly act,” Loveman said after the verdict.

Tellez could be given a maximum sentence of 26 years to life in prison when he returns to court Nov. 7, Loveman said.