Jury Selection Begins for 8 Charged in Drive-By Case

In a conspiracy trial aimed at sending a tough message to Ventura County gangs, prosecutors and defense lawyers began picking a jury Thursday to decide if eight alleged gang members from Thousand Oaks can all be found guilty of a drive-by shooting last April.

Because of the unusually large number of defendants and lawyers involved in the case, the trial before Superior Court Judge Allan L. Steele was moved to the largest courtroom in the Ventura County Hall of Justice until jury selection is completed.

Although no one was hurt during the shooting last April 27 in Thousand Oaks, the district attorney’s office appears determined to turn the trial into a showcase prosecution in an effort to quell growing gang violence.

“By doing this, we basically shut down the gang,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter E. Brown said of the arrests of the eight defendants and of two other alleged members of the Small Town Hoods who have already pleaded guilty.

In addition to the 10 alleged gang members charged as adults, two teen-agers were charged as juveniles. One has been found guilty of assault with a firearm, and the other is facing prosecution in Juvenile Court.

The gang, formed about three years ago, is based in Thousand Oaks but has been roaming throughout the county, according to a sheriff’s investigator.

The upcoming felony trial illustrates the aggressive posture of the Ventura County district attorney’s office, which is attempting to nip in the bud the type of gang violence that has become common in Los Angeles.

“We can have an impact,” Brown said. “The word gets out.”

Defense attorneys said, however, that the prosecutor is forcing a trial that shouldn’t be held.

“The case has been overcharged,” said defense attorney Carl K. Osborne of Los Angeles. “That’s not justice.”

Osborne’s statement refers to the guilty pleas of two of those arrested in the drive-by shooting.

“The other kids didn’t do anything” and should not be on trial, he said. “It’s guilt by association. It’s ridiculous.”

Another defense attorney, Edward A. Whipple of Ventura, said the trial issue comes down to “brandishing a weapon and should be a misdemeanor. But we’re in Ventura County.”

The defendants were indicted by a Ventura County grand jury June 26 on two counts: conspiring “to commit the crime of assault with a deadly weapon” and committing “an assault on a person with a firearm.”

Since then, Aaron Jensen, 21, and Nicholas Pupich, 20, both of Thousand Oaks, have pleaded guilty to the latter charge.

Eight defendants pleaded not guilty. They are Adolfo Alvarez, 18; George Avina, 18; Wade Caddin, 19; Joseph Cruz, 23; Marc Dean, 22; Scott Kastan, 18, and Tam Nguyen, 19, all from the Thousand Oaks area, and John Pinkham, 21, of Ventura.

Kastan is the only defendant who was denied bail because he is awaiting trial in an unrelated homicide case. In the indictment, Kastan is named as one of the alleged triggermen in the drive-by shooting.

If found guilty, the defendants could receive a sentence of up to four years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The prosecution plans to argue that the defendants possessed at least three weapons--a shotgun and two handguns--and used the handguns to spray a house on Greenwich Drive in Thousand Oaks with pellets and bullets last April.

The motive, Brown believes, was to seek revenge for a rival gang shooting that injured a member of the Small Town Hoods.

According to the indictment, the eight defendants, plus the two who pleaded guilty, met last April 27 at the Newbury Park house of their injured buddy, Daniel Tillman, “to discuss, plan and organize an attack on rival gang members.”

As they drove past the Greenwich Drive residence in several vehicles, they shouted “STH,” for Small Town Hoods, and fired the weapons, according to the indictment. Although people were standing outside the house, no one was injured, authorities said.