Witnesses Link Teen to ‘Freddy Krueger’ Robberies

It was after midnight last Feb. 19, and Reuel Cruz had already been terrorized for several minutes by a robber who hid behind a dark fedora and bandanna.

The bandit stopped Cruz on a San Pedro street and forced the 24-year-old to lie on the ground as he rifled his pockets and stole his wallet. Then, the masked man pointed a rifle at Cruz and ordered him to march to an alley off 17th Street, where he laughed as he repeatedly ordered Cruz to walk to the left, then to the right, Cruz told a jury in Compton Superior Court this week.

Finally, the gunman ordered Cruz to take off his shirt, pants and underwear. The terrified young man stood naked in the alley.

‘Freddy Krueger’

“Do you know who I am?’ ” the gunman asked, according to Cruz’s testimony Tuesday. “ . . . I said, ‘No.’

“He said: ‘Krueger. Freddy Krueger!’ ” Cruz testified.

And Cruz immediately recognized the name of the anti-hero killer of the “Nightmare on Elm Street” films. His tormentor ordered him to run, and as he did, Cruz said, he heard bullets whistling past his head.

Cruz, who was not injured, told the story this week in the courtroom where Angelo Regino is on trial for a string of late-night attacks that occurred early last year in San Pedro.

Regino, now 19, is charged with murder, attempted murder, two robberies and two attempted robberies, stemming from four separate attacks in January and February. The attacks occurred within a few blocks of Regino’s home on 17th Street.

The prosecutor said eyewitness identifications, tests of the murder weapon and circumstantial evidence will clearly link Regino to the crimes.

However, Deputy Public Defender Irwin Pransky said in his opening statement that Regino will testify that he was somewhere else when three of the attacks occurred. And witnesses will corroborate that, Pransky said.

If convicted, the district attorney’s office will ask that Regino be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. It will not seek the death penalty, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Scott Carbaugh, because of Regino’s age and because he does not have an “extremely serious criminal background.”

On Tuesday, Cruz concluded his testimony by positively identifying Regino as the man who terrorized him in the guise of the movie killer.

And he said later in an interview: “I think he just felt good about dominating the situation and being in control.”

Intimidation Shots

The defense attorney challenged Cruz on only one point. Pransky tried to show that the attempted murder charge is invalid because the gunshots were intended to intimidate Cruz, not to kill him.

The attacks in San Pedro by the robber in the black fedora began Jan. 7, 1988.

That night, a lifelong San Pedro resident, Johnny Healey, was found in the back of his pickup truck dead of eight gunshots. Healey, 49, was the son of a Coast Guard officer and owned two homes in the port community. But he decided after a fight with a roommate to sleep in his truck that night, friends said.

Also that night, 37-year-old Jerry Brookham left a bar on Pacific Avenue--about two blocks from where Healey’s body would be found--and was confronted by a man in a dark fedora, blue windbreaker and bandanna mask, Brookham testified.

The man ordered: “Give me your money.” But Brookham escaped by running back toward the bar.

Regino looked impassive in court Tuesday as Brookham said he is “90% sure” that Regino is the man who accosted him.

A month after Brookham fled from the man in fedora, Cruz was accosted just four blocks to the east.

Less than 24 hours later, in the same neighborhood, two young men wearing blue windbreakers and bandanna masks, robbed a neighborhood market of $6,100. Owner Grace Kim was unharmed, but she testified that one of the men fired a warning shot into the ceiling.

On Feb. 22, three days after that robbery, police said they discovered the murder weapon when Detective Ray Broker interviewed a woman at an apartment house on 17th Street.

Broker asked one of the tenants, Gloria Salcido, if she had ever seen anyone fitting the robber’s description.

“As a matter of fact, the one who fits the description the most is my son,” Salcido said, according to police records. The woman told police that her son is Angelo Regino.

Police said they found a fedora, bandanna, blue windbreaker and a .22-caliber rifle with a sawed off stock in the apartment. Ballistics tests show that the rifle is the weapon used to rob Cruz and the market, and to kill Healey, police said.

Regino denied involvement in the attacks, telling police that he was keeping the rifle for a friend, whom he refused to identify, a police report says.

Tomas Grajeda, 17, has pleaded guilty to the market robbery. Grajeda also pleaded guilty of robbing a San Pedro Chinese restaurant and is now serving four years at a California Youth Authority prison farm for the two crimes, Carbaugh said.

Pransky conceded that Regino was “fascinated” with Freddy Krueger, but said his interest in the movie character does not prove that Regino is guilty.

In an interview before the trial, Pransky said anyone could have worn the fedora and bandanna.

“Today you have young kids who don’t have heroes,” Pransky said. “So you’ve got a kid who worships the one with a black hat and not a white one. . . . He’s got no stake in society.”