Gang Member Gets 13 Years : Crimes: A man pleads no contest in a slaying in which a deputy answering emergency calls said, ‘Have a nice day’ and hung up.

A San Fernando gang member whose deadly attack on another gang member last year was discounted when reported to a 911 emergency dispatcher pleaded no contest Wednesday to a voluntary manslaughter charge and agreed to a prison sentence of 13 years.

Deputy Jim Greene’s handling of a frantic phone call to the Santa Clarita sheriff’s station reporting the Jan. 20 shooting triggered criticism from Sheriff Sherman Block and led to a series of safeguards to prevent similar mistakes.

Greene told caller Jim Finnila, who was trying to report his discovery of the victim’s bloody body, to “Have a nice day” and hung up.

Block said Greene did not believe the emergency was authentic.

Greene, a 26-year veteran with the Sheriff’s Department, remains assigned to the Santa Clarita station but is no longer handling emergency calls, Sgt. Lynda Edmonds, a department spokeswoman, said Wednesday. After an internal investigation of the incident, sheriff’s officials changed their procedures to ensure closer supervision of the 15 emergency phone operators at the Santa Clarita station, said Capt. Robert Spierer, station commander.

Also, watch deputies, who oversee the front-desk operation at the station, no longer are responsible for dispatching squad cars, giving them more time to monitor emergency calls, Spierer said.

Prosecutors had charged Alfonso Tapia, 20, with murder but on Wednesday agreed to reduce the charge to voluntary manslaughter because the victim, Miguel Jiminez, 15, of San Fernando might have started the fight that resulted in his death, Deputy Dist. Atty. Edward Nison said.

As part of the plea agreement, Tapia is expected to receive the maximum term for voluntary manslaughter--13 years--when he is sentenced Oct. 10 in San Fernando Superior Court, Nison said.

Nison said the shooting occurred after a car carrying Tapia and several friends chased a car in which Jiminez and others were passengers.

Jiminez and his friends stopped their car on San Fernando Road and waited for Tapia, who then shot Jiminez when he saw that the youth and the others were holding golf clubs and a tire iron, Nison said.

Finnila, a bystander, dialed 911 from a pay phone near the shooting scene and told Greene: “There’s someone laying here on San Fernando, there’s a gunshot on 8th and San Fernando . . . “ Greene hung up although Finnila expressed fear for his life, saying: “I’m going to get killed! There’s blood everywhere! There’s blood from his head! Oh, damn. Get a deputy.”

Greene apparently believed that the call was coming from a bar near the shooting scene and was a hoax, Block said after the slaying.

A squad car was nevertheless dispatched by another deputy who took a call from another witness, Block said.