GARDEN GROVE : 3 Deny Guilt in Drive-By Shooting

Three reported gang members who are charged with murdering two people--including a 4-year-old boy--during a drive-by shooting pleaded not guilty Thursday in Orange County Superior Court.

Roman Gabriel Menchaca, 19, Louis Palomino Valadez, 28, and Robert Phillip Figueroa, 20, will return to court June 5 for a pretrial hearing.

The three have been charged in connection with a Sept. 16 attack on a Garden Grove home that left the 4-year-old and a member of a rival gang dead and six other people injured.

Police said the three, plus a 14-year-old boy whose case is being handled in Juvenile Court, were riding in a red pickup truck when they fired semiautomatic rifles into a crowd of 13 people standing outside a home in Garden Grove.

Miguel Navarro, 17, and Frank Fernandez Jr., 4, were fatally shot during the incident.

Figueroa, Valadez and Menchaca each were charged with two counts of murder and nine counts of attempted murder, according to defense attorneys. The three suspects have been held in County Jail since their arrest Oct. 4.

The attorneys said Thursday that their clients are innocent, and one said the prosecution has a weak case.

“The eyewitness identifications here are very shaky,” said David Zimmerman, who represents Valadez. “People (at the shooting scene) were dying, flying and crying . . . and it’s hard to say what anyone sees.”

Police and prosecutors believe that the suspects are members of Santa Ana’s 5th Street gang and said the Garden Grove shooting capped a 10-year cycle of violence between the 5th and 17th Street gangs.

Authorities arrested the suspects three weeks after the attack after talking to eyewitnesses.

A second shooting occurred outside the same Garden Grove home on March 8 when a car was sprayed with bullets. Police have not arrested anyone in that case.