FROM CRIME TO CONVICTION

Sept. 16, 1989--In retaliation against members of the 17th Street gang, members of Santa Ana’s 5th Street gang drive up to a house on La Bonita Avenue in Garden Grove and spray a crowd of about a dozen people with semiautomatic rifle fire. In the wake of the carnage, six people are wounded and two left dead, including a 4-year-old boy.

Sept. 17--Ralph Rodriguez assists police in breaking the gang “code of silence” by persuading eyewitnesses to testify.

Oct. 4--Police arrest four suspects identified by the La Bonita survivors: Robert Figueroa, Roman Menchaca, Louis Valadez and a 14-year-old whose name is being withheld.

Oct. 6--Figueroa, Menchaca and Valadez are formally charged with conspiracy, first-degree murder, attempted murder and street terrorism for which prosecutor Thomas Avdeef says he will seek the death penalty.

Oct. 14--Joel Delarosa, 15, threatens to kill witness Ralph Rodriguez and tells him there is a $3,000 contract on his life; over the next several months the Rodriguez family is relentlessly harassed and threatened.

Nov. 4--Richard Ramirez, 21, tries to run down Rodriguez’s 12-year-old son, Ralph Paul.

Dec. 21--Randy Martinez, 20, allegedly drives up as Ralph Rodriguez is standing on his front lawn, points a revolver at him and says, “I’m going to kill you.”

Jan. 4, 1990--Police arrest Richard Ramirez on suspicion of intimidating a witness; also named on the arrest warrant are Randy Martinez and Joel Delarosa.

March 6--Robert Figueroa, Roman Menchaca and Louis Valadez are ordered to stand trial in Superior Court on two counts each of murder, eight counts each of attempted murder and one count each of conspiracy to commit murder.

March 8--Several shots are fired into a car parked in front of the home of Frank and Irene Fernandez; the shots were fired in an apparent attempt to discourage Irene from testifying against gang members who killed her 4-year-old son.

May 1--Richard Ramirez and Joel Delarosa plead guilty to charges they had tried to intimidate the Rodriguezes and are given jail sentences; the case against Martinez is still pending.

June 25--Superior Court Judge Tully H. Seymour orders the defendants to be tried by two separate juries simultaneously in the same courtroom, a first for Orange County.

July 10--The trial begins.

July 11--Ralph Rodriguez tells the juries he urged his cousins Irene Fernandez and Jenny Hernandez to “knock off the code of silence” but that he “did not tell them what to say.”

July 16--Rebecca Mercado testifies she recognized Menchaca as a gunman.

July 18--Jenny Hernandez, a victim of the Sept. 16 shooting and cousin of the slain 4-year-old, identifies Menchaca and the juvenile as the shooters and Figueroa as the man in the passenger seat of the truck.

July 19--Irene Fernandez, the dead child’s mother, who was also wounded in the drive-by shooting, names Valadez as the driver of the truck, Figueroa as a passenger and Menchaca as one of the gunmen.

Aug. 3--The Valadez-Figueroa jury reaches a verdict but Judge Seymour orders it sealed while the second jury continues deliberating.

Aug. 7--The Menchaca jury reaches a verdict.