Man Convicted in Slaying of Gang Member

A Ventura County Superior Court jury convicted former gang member Arnel Salagubang of second-degree murder on Thursday for killing a rival gang member who challenged him in Oxnard last November.

Salagubang, 20, also was convicted of inflicting great bodily injury and firing a weapon at an occupied vehicle in the slaying of Manuel (Deadeye) Rodriguez, 20.

Rodriguez belonged to a Latino gang called the Lemonwood Chiques. He was shot once in the head after yelling racial insults and gang taunts at a rival Filipino gang called the Satanas outside Channel Islands High School on Nov. 22. Salagubang was a former member of the Satanas.

Salagubang, who faces 15 years to life in prison for murder and another five years for using a weapon, sat still as the verdict was read and then began wringing his hands. Judge Frederick A. Jones ordered Salagubang held without bail until sentencing, which is scheduled for June 14.

Rodriguez’s mother, Martha Geraldo, wept while the dead man’s girlfriend, Casiana Hollers, held her 9-month-old son, Manuel, on her knee.

“I can’t have what I want--I want my son back--and that makes me mad,” Geraldo said. “I’d rather have Manuel locked up and go visit him than not at all.”

“How do you tell your son, when he goes to school and people ask where is his dad?” Hollers said through tears.

Two of Rodriguez’s friends, who were members of another branch of the Chiques gang from Oxnard’s south side, criticized the jury for not returning a first-degree murder verdict.

“He’s guilty, he was guilty as hell,” Henry Fernandez said.

Fernandez complained about the testimony of a key witness, Jamie Johnson, 17, who said Salagubang, a friend, was not present when the shooting occurred. Johnson, however, told police that she saw Salagubang shoot Rodriguez.

But prosecutor James Ellison said the jury probably decided on second-degree murder because Rodriguez provoked his killer, although, he said, “legally, there was enough there for a first.”

“I think it was a very fair and reasonable verdict,” added Ellison, whose first murder case was the Salagubang trial.

Court-appointed defense attorney Willard Wiksell said he had mixed feelings about the verdict. He said he was glad that Salagubang was acquitted of first-degree murder, but believed that the defendant should not have been convicted of anything more serious than manslaughter. He said he believed Salagubang fired out of fear when he saw Rodriguez reach for something under his car seat.

Wiksell said of Salagubang: “He’s frightened by the prospect of going to state prison, and he seems quite depressed.”

Salagubang’s conviction will be appealed, Wiksell said.