Gang Member Arrested as Suspect in Fatal Ambush : Crime: Alleged Mexican Mafia associate is held in child’s slaying. At least 3 others are still being sought.

A Los Angeles gang member and reputed soldier in the Mexican Mafia has been arrested on suspicion of being a triggerman in the post-midnight ambush of a family that left a 3-year-old girl dead and two others wounded.

Vincent Castro Caldera, 23, was taken into custody in front of his Isabel Drive home Wednesday night after a round-the-clock investigation by police, who continue to search for at least three other suspects in the shooting early Sunday. Police said Caldera would be charged with murder and five counts of attempted murder.

“Mr. Caldera is viewed in the community as one of the most vicious and vile members of the Avenues gang,” Police Chief Willie L. Williams said as he announced Caldera’s arrest at a Thursday morning news conference. “He’s been a critical threat to people in the community.”

On parole in connection with a 1992 killing in Glassell Park, Caldera is a suspected Mexican Mafia associate believed to be involved in the prison syndicate’s ruthless move to organize drug trafficking among Latino street gangs, law enforcement officials said.

Not far from Caldera’s home, relatives of the dead child expressed relief that an arrest had been made in the case, which has stirred a national outcry. Tina Dalton, the little girl’s aunt, said the family was ecstatic Thursday morning when a police detective knocked on their door with the news.

The child, Stephanie Kuhen, was killed and her 2-year-old brother Joseph was wounded when they were riding home with family and friends after a weekend barbecue. The car’s occupants say they were surrounded by approximately a dozen gang members who opened fire on them after they accidentally drove down a dead-end street in Cypress Park last Sunday at 1:45 a.m.

Joseph, who was shot in the foot, was released from the hospital Wednesday. The car’s driver, Timothy Stone, was treated for a back wound and released Sunday.

At Caldera’s home, just two blocks from the murder site, his arrest was greeted with disbelief.

“He is innocent,” declared Caldera’s mother, Tomasa, 52. “He left here Friday at 6 p.m. with his girlfriend and her family and he didn’t return until Monday evening . . . This person who said he saw him is lying. This is unjust. They should look for the real culprits.”

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Williams said police were following strong leads in their search for Caldera’s alleged accomplices, whom he described as members or associates of the notoriously tough Avenues gang.

“The investigation is far from over,” Williams said, urging anyone with information about the case to call police. “We’re not ready to make [additional] arrests. We need the public’s assistance.”

“They’ve terrorized that neighborhood for years,” Williams said of the suspects. “A lot of the folks know who they are and we want to track them down and put them in jail.”

Williams, describing the killing as a “vicious, wanton murder,” would not comment on any possible motive.

In another development Thursday, Stephanie Kuhen’s family said that Stone, the car’s driver, had spoken with detectives about outstanding drunk driving charges and a license suspension.

“[The ambush] has nothing to do with what he did four or five years ago, things that he cleared with the detectives,” said Dalton. “I think I have a seat belt [violation] ticket. Do they want to publicize that?”

Riverside County criminal court records show a Timothy Steven Stone failed to appear in June, 1993, for arraignment on two DUI counts, driving with a suspended license and giving a false identification, all based on the same traffic stop by the California Highway Patrol.

Stone could not be reached for comment.

LAPD Sgt. Stephanie Payne said Thursday that police had no reason to doubt the account of the shooting given by Stone and other vehicle occupants.

“Just based on his record alone, that has not changed the story,” Payne said. “There’s nothing that shows this was anything other than an accident. His record is not an issue.”

Williams said Caldera’s arrest was made with information developed from anonymous sources and witnesses. He added that police do not know whether the other suspects are still in the area and will not release their names until “we’re sure we have the right” ones.

Caldera, who is being held on $3.5 million bail, has not yet been charged. Williams said he expects one count of murder and five counts of attempted murder to be filed against the parolee.

Identified as one of the gunmen, Caldera was arrested 9:30 p.m. Wednesday without resistance by a surveillance team that had been staking out his neighborhood.

It was not his first arrest on suspicion of murder. Caldera pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was released from state prison a year ago after serving 14 months of a three-year sentence he received in connection with a gang slaying.

The victim was one of two men who had accompanied Caldera to the home of a rival gang member and opened fire. Their target returned the gunfire, killing Caldera’s friend.

Because Caldera had provoked the fatal gun battle, he was charged with murder and later pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Genelin, head of the hard-core gang unit, said Caldera was offered a plea bargain because witnesses had difficulty identifying him and it was a weak case.

Law enforcement sources who monitor the Mexican Mafia say Caldera and a brother were allegedly street enforcers and “tax” collectors for Alex (Pee Wee) Aguirre, 30, a veteran of the Avenues gang and suspected Mexican Mafia member who is now in federal custody, charged with violations of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

The Caldera brothers, one source said, were the “muscle” for Aguirre, who is accused of conspiring to murder and assault Northeast Los Angeles drug dealers who failed to pay drug “taxes.”

Sources said Thursday they had received reports from informers that the Mexican Mafia was angered because Kuhen’s killing violated a 2-year-old edict to halt drive-by shootings and other random killings.

One source said he heard that Avenues gang members were told by Mexican Mafia operatives that they “had messed up.”

“That’s one thing the Mafia didn’t want--a random-type shooting,” the source said. “It’s flouting the edict.”

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When confronting gangs in similar situations, the source said, the Mexican Mafia has ordered gang members to “take care of it in-house”--either by executing the violators of the edict or deserting them and allowing them to “face the music” alone if arrested. Gangs failing to heed such orders have been “green-lighted,” the source said.

“The green light is: If you don’t take care of it, the Mafia will send somebody to take care of it for you,” the source said.

After the announcement of Caldera’s arrest, neighbors and relatives of the suspect gathered in front of his family’s tiny yellow stucco house in Glassell Park, most saying that Vincent Caldera could not have killed a toddler.

He was a decent young man, they said. He was out of town. He had gone straight since prison. The police are just itching for a suspect, they argued.

Tomasa Caldera said she had received a threatening telephone call Thursday morning, accusing her of being “the mother of those assassins.”

“What assassins?,” she asked, standing in the foyer of the house where she has lived for 26 years with her husband and three sons, in a block of tidy, well-kept houses. “My sons are not assassins.”

As for her son’s alleged links with the Avenues gang, or the Mexican Mafia, Caldera threw up her hands. “I don’t know. What do the parents know? Sometimes they’re the last to know.”

A block away, Caldera’s 17-year-old girlfriend defended her boyfriend. The young woman, who said she is six months pregnant with Caldera’s child, said she and her family were in Watsonville with Caldera all weekend.

“Since he got out from the first time in jail, he’s been with me all the time,” she said, seated on the porch of her house on Avenue 33. “Just because he’s been in jail before doesn’t mean he came out here and killed someone.”

A landlord collecting rent in the area had another view. “I saw him quite often around here. He was a typical gang hoodlum. . . . In the morning, he was a nice gentleman, but at night he was with the boys and he tried to impress them. The bigger he got, the tougher he got.”

Another neighbor said he saw Caldera steal a car and shoplift liquor from a local grocery store, beating up a bagger who confronted him. “These are very dangerous people, believe me,” he said. “I hope they give him the death penalty.”

Times staff writers Tom Gorman, Duke Helfand and Ealena Callender contributed to this story.

* ANTI-GANG EFFORT: A countywide assault on gangs is launched by a group of agencies and officials. B1