Looking for Justice : Grieving Mother Finds the Courage to Face Her Son’s Accused Killers in Court Day After Day : VIRGINIA ESCOBEDO

I called him Jay or Jason. He went to Wilson High School and started a little band. They’d get together after school. I didn’t have to worry about him getting into gangs, and there’s a lot of gang pressure here in East L.A. I had him in Boy Scouts. He won a trophy for giving a speech in grammar school, a city-wide speech. We went up to City Hall and he got a trophy. I was pretty proud.

He took music at Pasadena City College and we’d go and hear him. I got to hear him in a choir. He studied music, then got into telecommunications, but his first love was music.

He had just started dating. This was his first girlfriend, really.

Jason was loving and he cared about his friends and his family. I guess he motivated them. They’ve told me Jason kept them together. With the band, he’d come over and hug them and listen to their problems. I’m glad his friends listened to him. They had good times together. He’d say: “I never want to grow up.”

He was killed Oct. 18, 1991, at Will Rogers State Beach. He was approached at the bathroom by one guy who asked for money. Jason’s girlfriend, Sonia, saw him. The guy slugged Jason. He was bleeding from the lip, but Jason didn’t hit him. I know Jason’s not a fighter. Jason and his friends got in the van and were leaving. They didn’t see anyone coming, so Jason and his friend, Billy, decided to get their stuff from the beach.

While they were at the beach and the girls were in the parking lot, this gang came in two cars, although some people were walking. From what the detective said, there were a lot of kids there and one group attacked the van. Sonia was in the back; they started trashing the truck with anything they could get: their hands, their fists, bottles, dumbbells.

The other group went to the beach looking for Jason and his friend. Jason was not a runner. His hip bones were turned in when he was little; they straightened out but he couldn’t run. Jason didn’t make it up to the parking lot. When his friends returned to the beach after they called the cops, Sonia found Jason on the sand, dead (from head injuries).

They took out their anger on Jason. I think if they had known him maybe it wouldn’t have happened. The gang members all watched, everyone who was there all watched. They kept silent.

For Jason’s funeral, we had three police escorts because there were so many people. It was like a well-written movie: It was overcast and the sun had broken through the clouds over Jason’s coffin. And I was wishing it was a marriage and not a funeral.

I know that a lot of his friends miss him and they go and take flowers to the cemetery. When I went to decorate his plot, he had a string of garland there. I decorated his plot with a Christmas tree. His friends have all gone into a shell. In fact, one had a nervous breakdown. I guess they felt (guilty) that they had left Jason at the beach.

I’ve noticed that there’s a lot of respect for the people that are being charged with murder. The court officials show them a lot more kindness; the bailiff was even passing notes between families and the prisoners.

But no one in the courtroom ever said, “Well, this is the victim’s mother.”

Then they started dropping charges. One day I didn’t show up and one of the guys who started the whole mess is out of jail (on his own recognizance)! How could this happen? And every time I go to court I see this man sitting there with his wife and his mother and the courtroom audience. They just had a baby and he’s so caring to the baby. I find it so hard to take.

Why couldn’t he do that with Jason? Jason would have never hurt anybody. Jason was just as caring and loving.

They all sat there with their lawyers, their public defenders. They sat there with interpreters; it looked like a delegation. And on the other side, you have one deputy district attorney and he’s fighting them all.

They should be punished because we’ve given them too much, too much leniency, too much respect. And they’ve taken it and they’ve destroyed whatever we have. They destroyed my family, my son.

I had to make myself feel strong because I felt nobody else was going to represent my son there other than the deputy district attorney and myself. I felt all alone and I had to be strong too to make sure the D.A. was handling the case. I told him, “I don’t want to see these guys out on bail.”

I felt that I couldn’t let people forget that Jason was a good person.

I work as a Head Start teacher in Lincoln Heights and my employer has been very kind to me. She said, “I understand your problem,” and she’s let me go to court. But it’s very hard to go. I wind up coming home really stressed out. I break down crying. My emotions are exhausted. It’s like you’re losing part of yourself over again.

I feel lonely. I feel sad. I feel like my family is all gone. I can’t be close to them because I hurt them with my crying or my emotions, so I keep my distance. I just feel that my family has just fallen apart. I feel . . . like a victim, a victim of the court, a victim because I lost my son and I’m not going to get any justice.

These emotions are going to be happening to a lot of people and they need to know what to expect. It’s horrible.

I don’t even know my rights. I have no rights, like I can’t go into the courtroom and say, “Hey, why did you kill my son?”

One of the defendants’ wives confronted me, asking what did I want with him. The mother came up to me and said, “Let my son go.”

I told her: “My son is dead. Why didn’t your son stay home with you?”

The people that do harm to other people are out on the streets and all I can think of is that the gangs are getting away with murder and there are going to be more people hurting like I am.

(Editor’s note: Two juveniles pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Jason’s death and are serving 11-year sentences at California Youth Authority facilities. Two other minors pleaded guilty to assault and were sentenced to juvenile camp. One adult pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to six years in prison and charges of assault were dismissed against two other adults. One adult is awaiting trial on a charge of attempted extortion, and Deputy District Atty. Edward Nison has filed with the appellate court to have charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy and assault reinstated against him.)