Motive Unclear in Slayings of 3 Roommates

Colorado authorities Wednesday were investigating why a troubled teenager befriended by three former Orange County men shot them execution-style and then drove 400 miles to a college dormitory, where he took four women hostage before being killed by a police sniper.

The three slain victims, all from Orange, were shot multiple times in the head and body with a handgun early Tuesday in the Bayfield, Colo., home they shared with the gunman, police said.

They were identified as Joshua Turville, 20, John A. Lara III, 20, and Steven D. Bates, 20.

Turville and Lara were described as “devoutly religious” and had attended Calvary Chapel in Santa Ana, where they helped lead Bible study classes. Bates, who had a minor brush with the law as a teenager, had accompanied his friends to Colorado and appeared to have turned his life around, friends said.

“We couldn’t believe it happened when the police told us about it,” said a friend of Lara’s family. “How could this happen to someone so into his faith?”

Bayfield Marshal Jim Harrington said the bodies were discovered in a two-bedroom home filled with Bibles and other religious literature. Co-workers and friends of the victims said they had moved to the southwest Colorado community of 1,400 residents about a month ago to work in construction and help start a new Calvary Chapel church.

“The big question is what is the motivation behind the execution of these three boys,” said Harrington, police chief in the community. “There were no drugs, alcohol or weapons in the house, just a lot of religious materials, and nothing that would show a propensity for violence.”

Investigators believe the shootings occurred between 12:30 and 1 a.m. Tuesday. The bodies were discovered about noon.

Harrington identified the gunman as Joseph Edward Gallegos, 18, who had an extensive juvenile record. He was released five months ago from a juvenile detention center and placed under the supervision of a Bayfield family. He won parole Sept. 11. Authorities said Gallegos’ record began when he was 13 and included convictions for several violent crimes.

Friends said Turville had befriended Gallegos during the summer and agreed to take him in as a roommate.

Authorities said that it was not clear what caused Gallegos to commit the killings, but that “he may have snapped” when his girlfriend broke off their relationship.

After shooting his roommates, Gallegos drove 370 miles across the state to Greeley, where his former girlfriend, Heidi Hocker, 18, attends the University of Northern Colorado, authorities said.

Gallegos arrived at Hocker’s dormitory room at 9:45 a.m., authorities said, and took her and her three roommates hostage. Gallegos, who was armed with a 9-millimeter handgun, shot Hocker once in the foot, Gates said. A fifth woman who was in the room escaped and notified authorities.

A police SWAT team arrived and began negotiating with the gunman. After three hours of negotiations, Gallegos agreed to release one of the women in exchange for a six-pack of Pepsi, police said.

During the standoff, Gallegos terrorized the women with death threats, Gates said. Police decided to act as the confrontation stretched into a fourth hour.

“At one point, we heard them begging for their lives. We knew that he had already killed three people in Bayfield, so we authorized a police sniper to fire a single shot,” Gates said. “Gallegos was hit in the neck and as he went down he fired several shots from his handgun through the apartment door.”

None of the other women or officers were injured in the incident. Hocker was taken to a hospital where she was being treated Wednesday, Gates said.

Relatives and friends said Turville, Lara and Bates had been friends since the fourth grade. On Wednesday, grieving family members tried to make sense of the tragedy and remembered two young men “who were just trying to do God’s work” and a third who was succeeding “in getting his life back together.”

Steve Turville, 62, said it was his son who convinced Bates and Lara to move with him to Colorado. The younger Turville had gone there on a skiing trip last year and met Jeb Bryant, who was starting a Calvary Chapel in Bayfield, Steve Turville said. He said Bryant invited his son to return to Colorado to work in the ministry.

Family and friends said Lara devoted much of his young life to the youth ministry at Calvary Chapel in Santa Ana. Lara spent a month in Germany last summer with a teenage missionary group building homes for underprivileged families, said Lourdes Cruz, a friend of Lara’s father, John Lara Jr.

Bates had packed up his clothes, camping gear and fly-fishing rod to join his childhood friends in a move to Colorado because he was attracted to “that country out there,” said Richard Bates, his 57-year-old father, who has taught biology at Rancho Santiago College for 25 years.

Times staff writers Lily Dizon, David Haldane, Thao Hua and Tracy Weber contributed to this story.