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5 Will Be Arraigned in Slaying at Festival : Santa Barbara: Police say alleged members of a Ventura gang clashed with rivals. A 16-year-old is fatally stabbed.

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Five alleged members of a Ventura gang are scheduled to be arraigned in Santa Barbara on Monday on murder charges stemming from a territorial street fight that turned deadly earlier in the week, police said Saturday.

Members of Ventura Avenue Gangsters, now being held in Santa Barbara jails, were attending the opening of Santa Barbara’s annual Old Spanish Days celebration Wednesday night when they ran into rival gang members on a crowded street, police said.

Patrol officers and other witnesses saw the two groups of youths shout gang slogans and then begin a fight. When police intervened, they discovered Robert Joseph Mitchum, 16, of Lompoc stabbed in the heart. He died a short time later.

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Police immediately arrested Benjamin Huerta, 18, of Ventura. Four others fled in a bright red Thunderbird.

Santa Barbara and Ventura police said they worked together to track down the car and the suspects to Ventura.

Police said they found bloody clothing in two of the suspects’ Ventura homes and arrested Gregory Lawrence Dominguez, 19; Ricardo Cervantes, 20, and two unidentified juveniles, ages 15 and 16. All were being held in Santa Barbara County Jail or juvenile hall without bail until arraignment Monday, police said.

The stabbing marked Santa Barbara’s first gang-related slaying this year, Santa Barbara police said. “We’ve had problems, but it isn’t a regular occurrence,” said Sgt. Gary Wolfe.

Wolfe said there has always been animosity between the Santa Barbara gangs--the East Side Locos and the G-13--and the Ventura Avenue Gangsters. But Ventura and Santa Barbara police stressed that the groups are far from being “real gangs.”

“They call themselves that to try to get recognition,” Wolfe said. “They are just semi-organized kids who like to stir up trouble.”

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Residents of the Ventura Avenue neighborhood where the Gangsters hang out say gangs are part of everyday life. “They know everyone and they watch everything,” said a local resident who declined to give his name because he had been attacked previously by gang members.

Members of the gang are known by distinctive tattoos on their backs and stomachs that read VTA or Ventura Avenue Gangsters, he said.

Neighbors of those arrested said the gang members do not cause any trouble in their own neighborhood, a working-class area of single-story homes. But the gang members often fight with youths from other areas, neighbors said.

“If someone messes with them, they’ll mess with them right back,” said Rosio Martinez, 14, who said the gang members often carry weapons. “But I didn’t ever think any of them would be the type to kill someone. I guess they are.”

She said Huerta, known as “Benny,” is a pleasant young man who rarely raises his voice. “He looks tough on the outside but he’s a real sweetheart inside,” she said. She said Huerta has his mother’s name tattooed on his arm and the gang’s name etched across his back.

Jay Moisant, who lives two doors down from Huerta, said he once hired the youth to work as a laborer. “He was dependable,” Moisant said. “He’s even come over to play Ping-Pong.”

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Before his arrest, Huerta was working at Ventura City Hall in a summer program targeted at steering youths away from gang activities, said Sgt. Carl Handy of the Ventura police gang unit. “It isn’t surprising that one or two fall through the cracks” of that program, he said.

Neighbors of Dominguez and Cervantes said they never caused any trouble. “He doesn’t seem like a gang member,” said Ty Garcia, who lives next door to Dominguez. “He sticks to himself.”

Santa Barbara and Ventura police said they could not rule out a the possibility of more violence as Santa Barbara gangs attempt to take revenge. “I am sure it was a territorial beef,” Handy said. “We pay very close attention to gang rivalry.”

In another gang-related incident, two Ventura juveniles were shot and injured Friday night by an unknown suspect at Marina Park in Ventura, Handy said. The shooting did not appear to be related to the Santa Barbara slaying, he said.

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