Gang-Related Caseload Taking Over Courts : Crime: Prosecutors fear a trend. A jury begins deliberations today in the murder trial of Edward (Tony) Throop.

After hearing four weeks of testimony and nearly five hours of closing arguments, a Ventura County jury will begin deliberations today in the murder trial of Edward (Tony) Throop.

Whether they agree with the prosecutor, who described Throop as a coldblooded murderer of two Saticoy men, or the defense attorney, who said Throop is “basically a big child,” the jury’s decision will resolve only one of an unprecedented rash of gang-related court cases in Ventura County this year.

Gang-related slayings, attempted homicides and other shootings--unheard of only three years ago--are beginning to dominate the calendars of the county’s six criminal-court judges.

On Monday, as Judge Allan L. Steele gave final instructions to the Throop jurors, Judge Frederick A. Jones was beginning jury selection in the murder trial of Vincent Medrano, who is charged in the same case.

Later this week, two alleged gang members are expected to go on trial before Judge Charles R. McGrath on charges of shooting into an occupied vehicle in April. When that trial is concluded, defendant Patrick Strickland will be sent to Judge Lawrence Storch’s courtroom, where he and another alleged gang member will be tried in the drive-by slaying of 20-year-old Jennifer Jordan in Thousand Oaks in May.

Even the civil courts have been affected. On Monday, Superior Court Judge Joe D. Hadden, who handles family law, is scheduled to decide who will have custody of Jordan’s infant daughter.

The Saticoy case, with four juvenile defendants, accounts for much of the gang-related court proceedings this summer. First there were hearings to determine whether the three defendants who were 16 or older should be tried as adults. Then there was a preliminary hearing for Throop, followed by a non-jury juvenile proceeding in which Steele convicted 15-year-old Joseph Scholle of first-degree murder.

Carlos Vargas, 16, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the case and will be sentenced by Steele in December.

By the time the cases of the Saticoy defendants are resolved, however, the Thousand Oaks case will just be cranking up, with the trial of Strickland and co-defendant Scott Kastan set to begin Nov. 4.

Several cases of nonfatal gang violence will be moving through the court system during the rest of the year, including a car-to-car shooting outside a Ventura theater Sept. 1 that wounded one man.

Some prosecutors said they fear that the rash of gang cases is not an aberration but a trend. In each of the past two years, there has been one gang-related slaying in the county; now three of the five deputy district attorneys who handle murder cases are tied up in gang-related homicides.

“I don’t think it’s cyclical. I think it’s just beginning,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald C. Glynn, who is prosecuting the Thousand Oaks case.

Peter A. Brown, a deputy district attorney who specializes in nonfatal gang cases, agreed that “there has been a flurry of activity this summer.

“It’s become an important aspect of the criminal-justice system right now,” he said. “Gang members are committing a disproportionate number of crimes in the community.”

What is especially alarming, said Ronald C. Janes, the major-crimes supervisor in the district attorney’s office, is the lack of a strong motive for much of the violence. Los Angeles gangs, he said, often shoot at one another to protect drug-selling turf, he said. But in Ventura County, he said, “they’re engaging in gang activity for nothing more than the thrill of it. They’re just emulating L.A. gangs. That’s real disturbing.”

In Ventura County, four of the five people allegedly killed by gang members since 1989 had no gang affiliations themselves, investigators say.

The rash of gang cases has resulted in a new type of expert witness: the gang expert. In the Throop trial, Judge Steele ruled that Ventura Police Officer Dave Wilson could testify as an expert on what motivates gang members and how that might explain the Saticoy slayings.

In nearly four hours of closing arguments Monday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter D. Kossoris hammered at Throop’s gang connections and their role in the shootings. Speaking for less than 40 minutes, Deputy Public Defender Christina Briles insisted that there was little evidence to suggest that Throop is a gang member or that gang involvement played a role in the shooting.

There was no disagreement on these basic facts:

Throop and the other defendants were drinking with a few girls in a Ventura lemon orchard on the evening of Saturday, April 6. Throop asked to fire a rifle that Vargas and Medrano had bought earlier in the day. Then they dropped off the girls and drove to Cabrillo Village. They spotted some people at the end of a cul-de-sac, and Throop fired several shots. Two hit Javier Ramirez, 18, who died; another two struck and killed Rolando Martinez, 20. Two other men were wounded.

Afterward, Throop helped hide the gun and started trying to build an alibi. He and the others were arrested April 9.

Briles said Throop and the others were drunk and had no clear plan when they drove to Cabrillo Village. She conceded that Throop fired the shots but said he did not intend to hit anyone.

In any case, she said, “there was no thoughtful consideration of the pros and cons,” which she said is required for a first-degree murder conviction. She asked for a verdict of involuntary manslaughter.

“When you look at his conduct,” she told the jury, “remember we’re talking basically about a big child.”

And she insisted that the shooting “did not have anything to do with gangs.”

Kossoris reminded the jury that four police officers testified that they had had encounters with Throop before the shooting, and that he had identified himself as a member of a Ventura Avenue gang. Kossoris pointed to testimony that Throop and Medrano wanted to get back at Cabrillo Village gang members who had attacked them. He also cited testimony that after the shooting, Throop said the victims had gotten what they deserved.

Citing Officer Wilson’s testimony about the pecking order of gangs, Kossoris said Throop increased his stature in the gang by being the triggerman--even more so because people were killed, he said. And he pointed to Throop’s own testimony that on the morning after the shooting, he went to the Ventura Avenue area and was immediately congratulated by gang members.

As for alcohol being a factor, Kossoris said Throop managed to hit four people with six bullets from 200 feet away with only a street light for illumination. “Does this sound like a guy in an alcoholic haze?” he asked.

He also discounted Briles’ suggestion that the jurors consider Throop’s age in reaching their verdict.

“Sure, he’s only 18, and he has a certain boyish charm,” Kossoris said. But, he added, “these people are no less dead because the defendant is a relatively young man.”