Man Gets 25 Years in Shooting That Killed 2 and Wounded 6

A judge sentenced Roman Gabriel Menchaca to 25 years to life in prison Friday for conspiracy in a gang-retaliation shooting last year that left six people wounded and two dead, one a 17-year-old and the other a 4-year-old on the way to the movies with his family.

Sitting in the back of Superior Court Judge Tully H. Seymour’s courtroom were two rows of young Menchaca supporters, dressed alike in bright, white T-shirts imprinted with large black letters that read: “Not Guilty.”

Authorities have called the Sept. 16, 1989, shooting in Garden Grove the worst gang-related incident in the county. Two young men in the back of a pickup truck opened fire on La Bonita Avenue just after dark, causing more than a dozen people to flee or duck for cover.

Killed were 4-year-old Frankie Fernandez Jr., sitting in the back of his family’s car, and Mike (Smokey) Navarro, 17, who may have been a primary target of the assailants. Prosecutors claim that Menchaca and other 5th Street gang members were retaliating against the 17th Street gang, which includes La Bonita in its turf, for an earlier shooting of a 5th Streeter.

Convicted of murder in the shooting were Louis P. Valadez, 28, and Robert P. Figueroa, 20, who face automatic prison terms of life without parole when sentenced next Friday. Also convicted of murder in the incident was a 15-year-old juvenile, scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 2.

The juvenile and Menchaca, now 20, were accused by witnesses of being the two gunmen. However, a jury deadlocked on the murder count and instead convicted Menchaca of conspiracy to commit murder, which carries an automatic 25-year term unless modified by Seymour.

Micki Comacho, mother of the slain Navarro, made an impassioned plea at Friday’s sentencing:

“I’ve known Roman since he was 8 or 9 years old; why did he want to hurt me this way,” she said. Then she turned to Menchaca and added, “If you wanted to hurt my son, why didn’t you take me instead. Then he would have hurt, then he would have suffered.”

Menchaca attorney C. Thomas McDonald also made a brief but biting statement to the judge.

“This verdict is based on the perjured testimony of rival, vindictive gang members who will say or do anything to convict a rival gang member,” the defense lawyer said.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas Avdeef told Seymour that “the only way to educate these gang members is to give them the maximum sentence and publicize it to their cohorts.”

Authorities feared that the shooting incident would go unsolved until three young women who had been a part of the 17th Street gang came forward--breaking the gang’s “code of silence”--to identify the attackers.

Security in the courtroom was heavy because of a bitter verbal confrontation between the rival gangs and their families when the three were convicted two months ago in Harbor Court in Newport Beach. But Friday, most of the people present supported Menchaca.

The families of the two victims left the courtroom without incident.

At the trial in Harbor Court, the victim’s supporters said that it would be up to 5th Street gang members to decide if a war between the two communities was to continue. But Friday, the 5th Street supporters complained that 17th Streeters have been the only ones to retaliate, spray-painting their gang name all over the neighborhood.