Gang Member Testifies Partner Said He Killed Woman in Car

Turning against his fellow gang members, a young man testified Tuesday that one member of the group admitted shooting a woman when she refused to relinquish her car.

After the fatal shooting of Janet L. Bicknell at Bowling Green Park in Westminster on Aug. 6, Enrique M. Segoviano confessed to Christopher F. Martinez that he had pulled the trigger, Martinez testified at a preliminary hearing Tuesday in Municipal Court in Westminster.

“He said, ‘I shot her. She wouldn’t stop so I shot her, the bitch,’ ” Martinez testified in a murmur.

Martinez, 19, and Segoviano, 18, both of Santa Ana, are on trial with Antonio E. Gonzalez, 21, and his 16-year-old brother, Edel, of Westminster and a 14-year-old boy from Santa Ana. They are charged with murder and assault with a firearm. Segoviano and Edel Gonzalez are also charged with murder with a special circumstance because, authorities allege, they tried to steal Bicknell’s car.

In a plea agreement with prosecutors, Martinez agreed to testify against his friends--who he claimed are also members of the 5th Street gang in Santa Ana--in exchange for a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter. If convicted, he faces six to 11 years in state prison.

The other defendants, who pleaded not guilty, face 25 years to life in prison if convicted. Segoviano and Edel Gonzalez would serve their sentences without possibility of parole. The 16-year-old is the first person in the county to be tried for murder as an adult, said Deputy Dist. Atty. John Anderson, who is prosecuting the case.

Authorities said Bicknell, 49, of Westminster was in the wrong place at the wrong time when she was shot in the head and killed on her way home from the grocery store.

In his testimony Tuesday, Martinez recounted how he and the three defendants and other members of their gang had been drinking beer all afternoon and into the night when they decided to go into their rival 17th Street gang’s territory “to do a drive-by.” Segoviano went home to get a gun and bullets, Martinez said.

Martinez said he wanted to retaliate against the gang because he had spotted their graffiti in the 5th Street gang’s area, and because 17th Street gang members had “ratted” by being key witnesses in the trial over a 1989 drive-by shooting. Both gangs were involved in that shooting, which killed a 4-year-old bystander and a 17-year-old gang member.

The group decided to steal a car near the park, Martinez said. They decided against the first car that passed by because it had “a baby in the back seat,” he said.

Martinez told his friends they would get “the next car,” and he went down to the park to spray graffiti while they waited, he said.

Hearing gunfire several minutes later, Martinez headed toward the shots and saw a car spinning on the road and his friends jumping into Gonzalez’s car, he said. When he got into the car, he asked what happened and Segoviano told him he shot the woman, said Martinez.