Pair Guilty of Killing 2 in O.C. Gang Shooting

In a courtroom filled with tension and taunts between rival factions, two Santa Ana men were convicted of double murder Tuesday in Orange County’s worst gang incident, which left a 4-year-old boy and a teen-ager dead and six people wounded.

A separate jury, sitting in on the same trial, deadlocked earlier in the day on murder verdicts for a third defendant--identified as one of the triggermen. But that jury convicted him on a single count of murder conspiracy.

Although the Sept. 16, 1989, shootings on La Bonita Avenue in Garden Grove brought a public outcry against gang violence, the killings have increased. A record 19 gang-related homicides have occurred so far this year, far ahead of last year’s record-setting 16 deaths.

Prosecutors claim the La Bonita Avenue shooting was a 5th Street gang retaliation against the 17th Street gang because of an earlier incident in which a nephew of one of the defendants was a victim.

Just after dark, a pickup truck with two young men in the back drove slowly past a group of people gathered in cars and on the street in the block just north of 17th Street. Suddenly, they opened fire with semiautomatic rifles and shot at random toward the small crowd. Killed were Frankie Fernandez Jr., the 4-year-old, who was sitting with his family in a car waiting to go to the movies, and Miguel (Smokey) Navarro, 17, who had been talking with friends.

Among those wounded were Frankie Jr.’s 2-year-old brother and a young man whose wounds were so severe that his leg had to be amputated. Navarro was considered a primary target because of his involvement with the 17th Street gang.

The Fernandez family and friends, many of them admitted 17th Street gang members or former gang members, cheered and clapped when Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas Avdeef came out of the courtroom after the verdicts. But he answered them somberly.

“I hope this is a message to all gang members,” Avdeef said. “There are other things we can do with our lives without going around shooting one another. I hope you have all learned a lesson; stay on the good side of the law.”

Avdeef later said the main message to gang members is: “If you go around doing these kinds of things, you’re going to be put away for a long, long time.”

Louis P. Valadez, 28, and Robert P. Figueroa, 20, now face automatic sentences of life without parole for their double-murder convictions. They were also convicted on multiple counts of attempted murder.

Roman G. Menchaca, 19, faces 25 years to life for conspiracy to commit murder. He was the only defendant who attempted to provide an alibi for his whereabouts that night.

When the Valadez-Figueroa verdicts were announced Tuesday, Irene Fernandez, Frankie Jr.’s mother, broke into tears and collapsed into the arms of a cousin. But seated across the room, the mother of defendant Figueroa, Isabel Figueroa, shouted to the other side: “Damned liars! Child molester!”

The “liars” was aimed at three young women who were victims of the La Bonita Avenue shooting and who identified the defendants as their assailants. The other taunt was for Ralph Rodriguez, a key figure in the case who once was convicted of child molestation. It was Rodriguez who first encouraged the young women in the 17th Street gang to cooperate with the police.

Outside the courtroom, Rodriguez shouted back at Isabel Figueroa: “That’s OK, he (her son) is going to rot in jail the rest of his life!”

More than a dozen deputies moved in to separate some of the spectators in the hallway when taunts between the two factions heated up. The defendants’ families and friends were ushered into a separate courtroom until the victims’ family and friends had left the building. The deputies had their hands full; in some cases they could only identify the factions by asking, “Are you 5th Street or 17th Street?”

“I am not a gang member,” answered one man resentfully. “I am with the Fernandez family.”

Inside the courtroom, during the reading of the verdicts, Valadez’s young wife, Leeza, sat in tears, with her face turned to the wall. She later had to be helped outside.

Valadez’s attorney, David A. Zimmerman, said he was outraged by his client’s conviction.

“There wasn’t a single, credible eyewitness who saw Louis there,” Zimmerman said. “But look at this crime. You couldn’t have a more vicious crime. It only took a stitch of evidence for a jury to convict anyone put on trial here.”

Figueroa’s attorney, Julian W. Bailey, echoed the sentiment.

“It was so emotional; all a jury had to do was see gang members sitting in front of them and you’d have a conviction,” Bailey said.

Although Menchaca fared better than the other defendants--with a mistrial on the murders, he avoided facing a life-without-parole sentence--his attorney, C. Thomas McDonald, said he was “stunned” that his client was not acquitted.

“The influence of the fact that Roman was associated with the 5th Street gang colored all perceptions,” McDonald said. “All during the trial, I felt I was fighting an (undeclared) charge--the onus of being associated with 5th Street.”

A 14-year-old boy also arrested as one of the gunmen is still awaiting trial.

One of the prosecution witnesses who faced stiff cross-examination on the witness stand said afterward that she was glad she had come forward, breaking “the code of silence” among gang members.

“I’m real happy right now,” said Inez Fernandez, who is related to one of the victims. “Now, maybe my nephew can rest in peace and they (the defendants) can rot in hell.”

The dead child’s father, Frank Fernandez Sr., was stoic when the verdicts were read.

“It didn’t do any good,” he said. “I still don’t have my son. Maybe in a while it will make a difference.”

His wife, Irene, who turned 24 Tuesday and is three months’ pregnant, said the outcome of the trial should encourage other witnesses to gang violence to speak out.

“Nobody should be afraid to come forward,” she said.

ORDEAL: One witness says he won’t step forward again. B1