Court Adds Bailiffs After Death Threat Against Defendant

In the wake of a death threat against a defendant in a murder case, court officials Friday assigned three more bailiffs to protect the man, who is accused of shooting his mother and aunt.

The added security--usually there is only one bailiff assigned to a courtroom--came as the jury deliberating the case against Charles (Carlos) de la Cuesta told San Fernando Superior Court Judge Howard J. Schwab that it was deadlocked. Schwab told jurors to continue deliberating on Tuesday to see if they can come up with a unanimous verdict.

A source close to the case said authorities had received information that the Mexican Mafia, a prison gang involved in narcotics sales, had been hired to kill De la Cuesta, 28. He is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of his mother and aunt as the two sat in their car on a Pacoima street in November, 1984.

Sgt. Tommy Robinson, head of the San Fernando court security division of the county Sheriff’s Department, confirmed that a state police officer had learned of the plan to kill De la Cuesta and had relayed the information to the Sheriff’s Department.

He said the officer did not reveal why anyone would want to kill De la Cuesta or who had asked the Mexican Mafia to become involved. Robinson said only reporters and De la Cuesta’s wife, Donna, would be allowed to attend further proceedings in the case.

De la Cuesta has been in custody in County Jail since May, when a $100,000 bail bond his family had posted for him was revoked because of a threatening letter mailed to the home of Deputy Dist. Atty. Pamela Davis-Springer, the prosecutor in the case.

Davis-Springer declined to comment on the latest threat or the possibility of a hung jury, calling the threat against De la Cuesta “yet another bizarre twist in an already bizarre case.”

Defense attorney Max Herman did not return several telephone calls.

The jury foreman told Schwab that jurors were deadlocked, 9-3, but Schwab did not ask whether the vote favored conviction or acquittal.

De la Cuesta was arrested in April, several months after his 52-year-old aunt, Mary Gomez, and his 61-year-old mother, Angie Hernandez, were shot near the intersection of Van Nuys Boulevard and Telfair Avenue exactly one year ago today.

Before his arrest, family members had posted a $5,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the sisters’ killer.