Day of Hope Turns Into Night of Horror

Friday was going to be a big day for the Granados family.

After months of unemployment, Carlos Granados Gallardo, the father of four, would be picking up his first paycheck at his new job.

So the family celebrated Thursday night, taking a rare trip out to a taco stand renowned for its $2.99 special. After they picked up their food, they piled into their 1983 Cadillac Cimarron, parked at the curb on Atlantic Avenue outside Compton. Just then, a 1995 Dodge Ram pickup barreled through a red light behind them at 80 mph.

“You usually hear the squeal of brakes, you know,” said witness Ramon Castellanos, 39. “None of that happened.”

The pickup sideswiped one passing car, then careened into the Granadoses’ aging Cadillac. The entire family--Carlos Granados Gallardo, 27; Magdalena Lopez, 25; Carlos Jr., 8; Adriana, 4; Jesus, 3; and Jose, 1--was wiped out, all of them dying instantly.

The driver of the pickup, James Lee Lyles, 53, of Rialto, suffered slight injuries, and after a California Highway Patrol officer smelled alcohol on his breath he was booked on suspicion of second-degree murder, officials said. His female passenger also suffered minor injuries.

“We’ve gone through this too many times,” said CHP Officer Rick Rodrigues, one among an army of rescuers sent to the scene Thursday night. “The innocent victims are just that. They’re gone.” On Friday, relatives and friends of the Granadoses, in churches, stores and apartments throughout southeast Los Angeles County, grappled with boundless grief. As investigators continued to pry through the twisted crash wreckage, passersby who had never met the family broke down in tears.

Sixty-one miles away, the suburban block that Lyles calls home was deserted except for the occasional news van or ice cream truck. No one answered the door or the phone at the tidy suburban home where Lyles lived with his wife and adult daughter.

“Everybody’s just shocked,” said Leo Mayorga, 28, a relative of the victims who was to be Jose’s godfather. “It’s not an easy thing to accept.”

The Granadoses last year moved out of a modest apartment in a blue-collar Compton neighborhood to their own rented Spanish-style house across town, with a pink rosebush outside and three lime trees in the backyard.

They were trying to buy a house, Mayorga said, noting, “That was one of their dreams.”

But those dreams were derailed in December, when Granados was laid off from his job at a trucking firm. Lopez’s salary from her job at 2 wins drive-thru restaurant in Paramount supported the family. “They were going through tough times,” Mayorga said.

Still, the family stayed together as much as possible, with Granados taking Carlos Jr. to play soccer, or the entire family going on outings to El Dorado Park in Long Beach, to the ocean or shopping.

And especially to church, where every Sunday they were a fixture at St. Philip Neri Church in Lynwood. Carlos Jr. recently completed his catechism there, said Father Jose G. Sanchez.

“They were always a very united family,” he said.

Finally, Granados found work this month. On Aug. 2 he became a sales associate at J.C. Penney in Carson, where his wife’s father worked. Co-workers there remember Granados as an affable, happy man, with a firm handshake, determined to guide his family through hard times.

Indeed, friends say the Granadoses were becoming cautiously optimistic about their prospects, organizing a party for Jose’s upcoming baptism. “They were just getting started,” said Yesenia Hurtado, 18, a friend of Lopez. “They were making plans.”

Earlier this week the couple had a scare when Jose had fevers and seizures Monday and Tuesday. They rushed him to the hospital, but he recovered by midweek. On Thursday, Granados had the day off. He watched the kids at home, then drove to Paramount to pick up his wife from work. The family headed to Tacos El Unico to celebrate Granados’ imminent paycheck.

About 9:45 p.m., according to the CHP, Lyles was driving north on Atlantic, just past Rosecrans. In the passenger seat of his pickup was Mary Bernice Elliot, 36, of Compton.

According to witness accounts, the pickup ran a red light, sideswiped a moving car, hit the Granadoses’ Cadillac, essentially running it over, and then tipped over.

Ezequiel Padilla, owner of Jugos Tropicals at the intersection, said he was waxing his floors at the time of the crash: “The impact sounded like two shots from a pistol.”

Investigators were still sorting through the tangled debris more than 12 hours after the accident. Outside the taco stand Friday morning, passersby stopped to reflect tearfully on the twisted frame of the family’s car. A plastic child’s car seat sat on the pavement nearby.

In Rialto, a dog barked behind a gate to the Lyles house. With its brick and yellow stucco facade and well-manicured rose garden, the home stands out in the middle-class neighborhood. Neighbors said Lyles, a carpenter, built the house himself.

“He is a hard-working man,” said a resident who lived down the street from Lyles and did not want to be identified. “His wife works too.”

Officers who arrived on the crash scene smelled alcohol on Lyles’ breath, and escorted him to St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, where a blood sample was taken for lab tests, authorities said, adding that they also suspect he was under the influence of drugs. He was taken to the medical ward of Los Angeles County Jail. After an examination showed no significant injuries, he was released into the main jail, CHP spokeswoman Jennifer Pendergast said.

Authorities could not say whether Lyles had a record.

As carloads of mourners pulled up to the apartment building where the Granados family once lived, Mayorga, Jose’s expected godfather, said people were still unable to consider that Lyles may have been drunk.

“It’s too soon to worry about that,” he said. “That’s the last thing on their minds.”

Times staff writers Nicholas Riccardi and Alan Abrahamson and correspondent Mayrav Saar contributed to this story.