O.C. Teen Gets Life Term in Carjack Slaying

Condemning the murder of a teacher’s aide as one of the most “savage, brutal and senseless” killings he has seen, a judge Monday sentenced an 18-year-old man to life in prison with no possibility of parole--making him the youngest person in Orange County history to receive that punishment.

Santa Ana gang member Edel Gonzalez was convicted of first-degree murder earlier this month in the August, 1991, shooting death of Janet L. Bicknell during a failed carjacking at Bowling Green Park in Westminster.

“This helpless woman (was) slaughtered in her neighborhood just for the simple reason that the defendant and his companions wanted her car,” Superior Court Judge Luis A. Cardenas said. “No car in the world is worth the price of life.”

Coming at a time when carjackings were less frequent than they have since become, the killing shocked county residents and sparked the formation of a multi-agency gang suppression unit here.

Authorities said Bicknell, 49, of Westminster, was shot because she wouldn’t allow Gonzalez and four other gang members to hijack her car to use in a drive-by shooting.

Gonzalez was not the triggerman in the shooting, but a law passed by the Legislature in June, 1990, allows a murder prosecution if a death occurs during the commission of certain felonies.

Two others have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the slaying and testified against Gonzalez. One will be sentenced as a juvenile. Christopher F. Martinez, 20, is awaiting sentencing for voluntary manslaughter.

Two more suspects--Gonzalez’s 22-year-old brother, Antonio, and alleged triggerman Enrique Segoviano, 19--are to stand trial next month.

Gonzalez’s attorney unsuccessfully argued that his client should not be sent to state prison because he did not shoot Bicknell and was “basically a child” at the time. Gonzalez was 16 when the crime occurred.

“He didn’t intend that she be killed . . . and it’s not particularly in society’s interest to sentence children to life without parole,” attorney Dennis McNerney said outside court.

Gonzalez’s mother, Maricela Espinoza, also appealed to Cardenas, parent to parent, for a more lenient sentence.

“I believe you are a father and you would know what a mother feels,” she said through an interpreter, as her son sat stoically several feet away. “My son is not as bad as he appears to be. He would help me at home, taking care of my children.”

But Cardenas refused to send Gonzalez to the California Youth Authority, saying: “The nature of this crime is too horrific.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. John S. Anderson argued that Gonzalez deserved the life sentence because he should have known that his participation in gang activity that included the use of a gun could result in death.

Bicknell’s life, Anderson said, meant “nothing” to Gonzalez and his friends. “Every citizen’s nightmare is what happened” to her, the prosecutor said.

Gonzalez was also convicted of attempted robbery, conspiracy to commit an assault with a firearm, and violating the state Street Terrorism Act by participating in gang activity. The jury found that he “acted with reckless indifference to human life,” a special circumstance that qualified him for the harshest sentence short of the death penalty.

On the day of the shooting, Gonzalez and the rest of the group--whom police have identified as members of a Santa Ana gang--had been drinking and planning a drive-by shooting on a rival gang’s turf, Gonzalez testified during the trial. They sought to steal a car that could not be traced back to them, he said.

Prosecutors said Gonzalez stepped in front of Bicknell’s car as she drove slowly around the park and attempted to force open the driver’s side door while Segoviano allegedly pointed a gun at her. But the plan went awry when Bicknell refused to turn over her vehicle.

As Bicknell tried to drive away, Segoviano allegedly shot her in the head with a pistol. Gonzalez testified she was shot only because she wouldn’t give his fellow gang members her late-model Toyota.

Police found Bicknell dead in her car, groceries scattered inside and the radio still playing.

Not far away, the youths, who fled in their own car after the shooting, pulled over at a nearby convenience store to cover the rival gang’s graffiti with their own slogans. They were arrested a few minutes later by police.