Classmates Among Grieving at Funeral for Girl Shot at Mall

Beneath the softly rolling San Gabriel mountains, Jacalyn Calabrese, 12, was laid to rest Saturday in a casket laden with pink roses and white baby’s breath.

Boys and girls from her seventh-grade class held each other and cried as her coffin was lifted from a white hearse and carried up the steps of St. Norbert’s Catholic Church. Six days earlier the curly-haired brunette had been shot to death in a busy shopping mall, allegedly by a friend in what appears to have been a prank gone awry.

Another friend, Brian Spiker, 15, was the youngest of six pallbearers.

Lightly freckled and boyishly handsome in a somber black suit, Brian put a pink-ribboned corsage into the casket Saturday morning before the funeral Mass. He had given it to Jacalyn more than a year ago before a party, he said. For both of them it was their first date. She had saved it as a memento in her mom’s refrigerator.

“I loved her,” Brian said. “We had a lot of memories with that corsage. . . . She was a really good friend. She was really happy, and everybody loved her.”

About 200 friends, relatives and classmates from Cerro Villa Middle School in Villa Park attended the funeral. Many of the girls carried pink carnations. The gathering was asked during the young girl’s eulogy to forget and forgive the violence of her death.

Among those attending were the parents of Juan Samuel Cardenas, the 12-year-old boy who is accused of killing Jacalyn. Both families belonged to the parish, and the two youngsters had attended religion classes together, a church spokesman said.

Witnesses have said that Juan, who has been charged with the shooting, was distraught after realizing that he had shot his friend and classmate. He had a crush on Jacalyn, the witnesses said, and had been showing off the gun to her before she dared him to shoot her.

“A 12-year-old girl is killed by a 12-year-old boy. Does that make sense?” asked Father Joseph Knerr, associate pastor of St. Norbert’s Church, during the eulogy. “I need you, Lord, to help this family. One minute she’s talking to her friend, and the next minute she’s dead.”

Knerr went on to urge those in attendance to follow the example of Gloria Calabrese, Jacalyn’s mother, who has said that she has forgiven Juan.

“We only add to the violence by dwelling on the violence. Please, please forgive Juan. Pray for him. I’m sure he feels dead inside.”

Juan is being held without bail in Juvenile Hall and will face a pretrial hearing Wednesday on charges of involuntary manslaughter, assault with a deadly weapon and using a gun to commit a crime. His lawyer, a public defender, has said that he has been placed under close supervision because he is considered a suicide risk.

At the grave site at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Orange on Saturday, Jacalyn’s older sister, Angelique Calabrese, 15, fought back tears as her 10-year-old brother, Alfred Calabrese III, watched classmates place flowers on his sister’s casket. Their father appeared stunned as he looked at a large handmade card, reading the signatures of classmates over and over.

“Dear Mr. and Mrs. Calabrese, Jackie had many friends who loved her. . . ,” the card read. “We want you to know that your loss is shared. . . . “

On Friday evening, a few of her friends and her older sister had tried to leave a small memorial for the young girl at the Mall of Orange, where she was slain. But a mall security guard ordered them off the property, friends said Saturday. The mall’s supervisor of security, Victor Collazo, said he could not comment on the incident because “we’ve never had this happen before. . . . There’s no policy.”

Brian Albina, 13, said he brought a red rose and Jacalyn’s sister brought a letter they had hoped to leave for Jacalyn on Friday evening. After the guard shooed them away, they returned, Albina said, and knelt and prayed for Jacalyn while some holiday shoppers joined them.

“I just wanted to be there down where she was,” Brian said, a tear glistening on his cheek. “I think that’s where her soul will be.”