Gang Member Pleads Guilty in Teen’s Slaying

One of three gang members who participated in the beating and fatal shooting of 16-year-old Jimmie Torrez III pleaded guilty Friday to first-degree murder in the Aug. 27 slaying.

The killing produced an outpouring of community concern over increased gang activity in San Fernando. A candlelight vigil attended by 300 was held in memory of Torrez, who was attacked after falling off his motorcycle while trying to escape the gang members.

Albert Martinez, 21, also pleaded guilty to a recently enacted state law that makes membership in a street gang a crime. It was one of the first such convictions in Los Angeles County, Deputy Dist. Atty. Edward Nison said.

On July 3, an accomplice of Martinez’s, Manuel Madrigal, 23, became the first defendant convicted by a Los Angeles County jury under the street gang law, which went into effect last year, Nison said. Madrigal also was convicted of first-degree murder in the killing of Torrez and faces 26 years to life in prison when he is sentenced Monday.

Martinez faces 27 years to life in prison when he is sentenced Aug. 23, Nison said.

The third defendant in the killing, Robert Flores, 24, of Pacoima, pleaded guilty May 30 to voluntary manslaughter and is scheduled to be sentenced July 27. He is expected to receive the maximum 12-year prison term, Nison said.

Martinez and Madrigal beat Torrez after the boy fell off a motorcycle they had been chasing on a San Fernando street, Nison said. But it was Martinez who retrieved a .22-caliber assault rifle from the trunk of his car moments after the beating and shot the wounded Torrez once in the head and five times in the chest, Nison said. Flores was with the other two but may not have participated in the killing, authorities said.

The men mistakenly thought Torrez had killed a member of a gang with which they were associated, police said.