N. Hollywood Man Convicted of Valley’s One Riot-Related Murder

A North Hollywood man was convicted Monday of committing the only murder in the San Fernando Valley blamed on last year’s riots.

Traville Craig, 20, will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing Elias Garcia Rivera by smashing his head with a board. Rivera was attacked April 29, 1992, hours after violence erupted following the not-guilty verdicts for four Los Angeles Police officers in the first Rodney G. King beating trial.

Defense attorney Dale K. Galipo bowed his head as the guilty verdicts for Craig were read, but Craig maintained the easygoing manner he had displayed throughout the trial, smiling and casually sitting back and examining his fingernails.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge John Fisher has scheduled sentencing for Oct. 25. The law requires that Craig be sentenced to life without parole.

Jurors, who deliberated for just over two days, said Craig was trying to rob Garcia when he struck him with a long piece of wood. The jury could convict Craig of murder because of the robbery finding, even though it concluded he did not intend to kill Garcia.

During closing arguments last week, Deputy Dist. Atty. Shellie Samuels said Craig swung at Garcia’s skull like a major-league baseball player hitting a home run. The 32-year-old Garcia underwent emergency surgery, after which he fell into a coma.

He died eight months later, making him the 53rd victim of the Los Angeles riots, and the only one in the Valley.

Although the altercation preceding Garcia’s death was nothing like the mass violence that filled television screens after the King case verdicts, the coroner’s office determined that it was a riot-related attack.

The incident started about 10:30 on the first night of civil unrest when Craig and several other African-American men approached a group of Latinos who were drinking beer outside their North Hollywood apartment building.

At least one of the residents, according to the testimony, told the black men that they supported King and believed the officers should have been convicted.

Craig, testifying on his own behalf, admitted that he asked Garcia and several other Latinos for a donation to a fund he claimed would finance a retrial of the four white police officers accused of beating King.

One man, Victor Medina, handed over $2, but Craig demanded more, according to the testimony in the two-week trial. Two witnesses said Craig reached for Medina’s wallet before he chased Medina into an apartment complex on Vanowen Street near Coldwater Canyon Avenue.

Medina and a teen-ager who lived in the complex said Craig chased Medina around the building before cornering him on a second-floor landing. They testified that Craig armed himself with a 2 1/2-foot board and demanded Medina’s wallet.

When Medina refused, Craig swung the board, hitting Medina in the forehead, according to testimony. The jury also convicted Craig of assault with a deadly weapon for the attack on Medina.

As Medina crumpled to the ground, Garcia ran up the stairway, apparently attempting to assist his friend. As he reached the top stair, Craig swung the board again, cracking Garcia’s skull, prosecutors said.

Craig was portrayed by prosecutors as an opportunist exploiting tensions on the first night of the riots, but Craig said that he was acting in self-defense. He testified that Medina and another man hit him in the face outside the apartment building and Medina later attempted to smash him with a deck chair.

Craig admitted hitting Medina with a board, but said he dropped the weapon when a bloodied Medina fell to the ground. Craig has maintained that he hit Garcia with his fist and that Garcia’s skull fracture was caused when he hit his head on a concrete step.