1 Convicted, 1 Acquitted in Gang Slaying of 12-Year-Old Long Beach Girl : Courts: Jury’s split verdict stemmed from reluctant witnesses, prosecutor says. Anita Briones begged for her life before she was killed.

One reputed gang member was found guilty of murder and another was found not guilty Friday in the shooting death of a 12-year-old girl that outraged a Long Beach neighborhood last year and prompted demands for more police protection.

A Pomona Superior Court jury found Ruben Guerrero, 19, not guilty of the Aug. 4 slaying of Anita Briones, who begged for her life before being gunned down in the street.

Co-defendant Guillermo Zolozabel, 17, who was tried as an adult, was found guilty of first-degree murder. He is to return to court Monday for a sentencing date.

Zolozabel could receive 25 years to life in state prison, plus an additional three years for using a gun. He covered his eyes with his hands when the verdict was read and looked sorrowfully over his shoulder at family members in court.

The split verdict arose because of the difficulties of gang-related cases, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Gary Nielsen. His case relied mainly on two 14-year-old gang members who saw the shooting. They were reluctant to testify and gave differing accounts to patrol officers, to detectives and in court, he said.

“It’s a mark of honor not to cooperate with police,” Nielsen said of gang members. “(They believe) real men go out and do their own paybacks.”

The shooting of Anita Briones was a payback for a gang shooting directed at Zolozabel, who belonged to a West Long Beach gang, Nielson said during the trial.

Anita, known as “Little Goofy,” was affiliated with an East Long Beach gang. She had gone to a party earlier in the evening at a home in the 300 block of West 15th Street. She was in front of the house trying to find a ride home at 3:40 a.m. when a car with four West Long Beach gang members pulled up.

The four claimed they were also East Long Beach gang members. But Anita told them she did not recognize them and may have insulted them, Nielsen told jurors. The group then shouted profanities and two youths jumped out of the car, one wielding a shotgun and the other a handgun.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it,” witnesses testified Anita said. But she was hit in the chest by a shotgun blast and in the thigh by a bullet from the handgun.

Police said they identified the assailants by gang names shouted as the assailants sped away and by the car, which was repainted shortly after the shooting.

Attorney Henry Salcido said his client, Guerrero, was a mile away, listening to music on a car radio at the time of the shooting. Guerrero testified in court and three teen-age girls testified in support of him.

Zolozabel did not testify. His attorney, Damon Swank, also asserted that Zolozabel was not at the murder scene. Zolozabel’s sister testified that her brother was home by 10 that night.

After the trial, Salcido said jurors told him they were impressed by Guerrero’s testimony and doubted the testimony of Long Beach Homicide Detective Tim Cable. Salcido asserted during the trial that police officers decided beforehand the identities of the murderers and interpreted Guerrero’s statements accordingly.

But Cable said after the trial that the case was inherently weak because adults in the neighborhood failed to testify about the murder.

“I know that at least 15 people saw what happened . . . but they wouldn’t say a word,” he said angrily. Gang members rely on intimidation to keep witnesses silent, he said, but he added that not one witness has been harmed during his seven years investigating homicides in Long Beach.

The Washington Middle School area where Anita was killed has been quiet since the shooting, said Aurelia Gonzales, head of the neighborhood association.

Before Anita’s slaying, gang murders occurred about once a month, but none were logged in February, March and April after police patrols increased, Gonzales said. A nursery school just yards away from where the girl was killed is now decorated with a mural that will be dedicated June 12 as a symbol of harmony and peace, she said.

“The shooting was the last straw,” Gonzales said. “It made a lot of people join together.”

Times staff writer Roxana Kopetman contributed to this story.