Half of O.C. Killings Are Going Unsolved

In Orange County, the murders are piling up faster than the police can solve them.

A colder type of homicide committed by youthful gangsters, often against victims they have never met, coupled with witnesses who are often too terrified to testify in court, is stumping police at a rate Orange County has never seen.

According to information local police provide the California Department of Justice, only half of Orange County homicides are now being solved--a 43% drop since 1981. That year, police resolved nearly nine in every 10.

The drop in the number of homicides, which began in 1994, while welcome, has done little to improve prospects for solving cases.

“Things aren’t as easy as they used to be,” said Lt. Hugh Mooney, chief of homicide investigations for the Santa Ana Police Department. “It’s a different kind of killing we face. These are drug killings and gang killings. You don’t get a bunch of witnesses who step up and say, ‘I saw Joey shoot Johnny.’ ”

Consider a few victims from the file of the county’s 787 unresolved homicides since 1981:

* Scott Mundt, 39, beaten to death in the courtyard of a Tustin apartment complex as dozens watched from their windows. Three people came forward. Then gangs threatened the state’s star witness, prosecutors say, and he refused to testify. Two of Mundt’s suspected killers went free.

* Fernando Gutierrez, 22, whose buddies left his body in a car outside a Santa Ana hospital, then fled on foot. Case unsolved.

* Juan Lopez, 15, found dead on the pavement at Bristol and 18th streets in Santa Ana early on the morning of Jan. 30, 1995. Police found no witnesses and little evidence: a gunshot wound. The case is still open.

Across the county, police say they are working harder than ever but the explosion of gangs and gang murder in recent years has made their jobs far more difficult.

Killer and victim don’t know each other. Witnesses are afraid to testify. Suspects flee to Mexico. Gangs vow revenge.

“It used to be people were murdered by someone they knew, and that gave detectives a place to start,” said Capt. Dan McCoy, head of investigations for Santa Ana police. “Today, the killer is likely to be a stranger, and that changes the ground rules.”

The trend is an ominous one for law enforcement, McCoy said.

“If the stranger phenomenon continues, we are going to find it more and more difficult to solve cases.”

While the killer and victim may be strangers, most of the murders are anything but random. In recent years, roughly a third of the victims have been killed deliberately by gang members or were caught in the cross-fire of gang warfare.

The steep drop in the homicide solution rate has alarmed and demoralized community leaders. Some, particularly Latino residents, fear that the failure to solve so many killings has, in some parts of the community, made murder nearly risk-free.

“There is a feeling that if you commit a murder, you can get away with it,” said Amin David, chairman of a Santa Ana civic group, Los Amigos, that has held candlelight vigils for several slain residents. “The message is that life is less precious.”

The trends in Orange County are mirrored across California. Last year, police solved slightly more than half of the state’s 3,498 homicides. Fifteen years ago, they solved seven of every 10. In Los Angeles County, which had nearly 1,670 homicides in 1995, only 49% were solved--the lowest rate in recent memory.

The burdens imposed by the latest type of murder--both emotional and financial--fall disproportionately on minorities and the poor.

Of the 525 Orange County homicides since January 1991 in which Latinos were victims, police have arrested suspects in just a quarter of the cases. In cases with Asian victims, 38% ended with an arrest.

When the victim was white, police reported making arrests 61% of the time.

With the great majority of homicides taking place in a handful of cities, the burden of police work is also borne unequally.

Santa Ana had 72 homicides last year, more than any other city. Of those, police solved 19. The city accumulated 379 unsolved homicide cases from 1981 through 1995. Its “clearance” rate for the last five years averaged 33%.

With plenty of resources and relatively few murders, police in the county’s wealthier cities still solve a hefty majority. From the beginning of 1991 through the close of 1995, Huntington Beach police solved 70% of the city’s homicides, Fullerton police solved 81% and Irvine 71%.

Irvine, which has averaged only 1.5 murders a year over the last 15 years, employs two full-time homicide detectives.

“We don’t have enough murders to keep us busy,” Irvine homicide investigator Larry Montgomery said.

Some county residents, particularly those touched by murder, see a double standard: When a white person is murdered, the police fan out to catch the killer. When the victim is Latino, they say, the police chalk it up to gangs and close the books.

In their anguish, residents blame the police.

“The police don’t care,” sighs Gloria Silva, whose 25-year-old son, Gary, was shot 14 times in a Santa Ana alley in September 1995. A picture of her son adorns the television set in her Anaheim apartment, where she moved to escape the memories. The case is unsolved.

“The police won’t even take my calls anymore,” Silva said. “They don’t care if Mexicans get killed.”

The police vigorously dispute such accusations and assert that ethnicity plays no role in determining the effort they expend in trying to solve a case. Murders with Latino victims aren’t solved as often, police say, because Latinos make up a huge share of neighborhoods grappling with gangs, and gang murders are the hardest to solve.

“The families of victims want an answer, something to explain what’s happened, so I can’t blame them when they say things like that,” said the Santa Ana Police Department’s McCoy. “But it’s absolutely not the case. The so-called community activists that say that are doing a disservice to this community and this department. It’s a treacherous, venomous thing to say.”

*

Police and law enforcement experts generally agree that the dismal rate at which some police departments are solving murders transcends race and resources.

In the last 15 years, they say, virtually everything about homicide has changed: The victim, the killer, the place, the motive. At the heart of that change, the experts say, are gangs.

Joseph McNamara, former chief of the San Jose Police Department and now a research fellow at the Hoover Institution in Palo Alto, says the drop in Orange County’s homicide arrest rate has been mirrored in urban areas across the country.

McNamara traces the trend to the introduction of crack cocaine into urban areas in the 1980s. The advent of crack destabilized the existing drug market and opened huge new opportunities. The gangs rushed in.

“The gangs have easy access to guns. It’s a macho culture. And it’s damned dangerous,” McNamarma said.

The gang wars piled up the bodies. Consider the numbers: In 1981, Orange County lost 81 people to homicide. In 1993, it lost 197--a 140% increase. Last year, 164 people were slain in Orange County, an average of about three a week.

Most everything else about murder has changed as well. Using data provided by the California Department of Justice, The Times developed a statistical composite of murderers and their victims in 1981 and today. The data showed that a typical homicide has evolved from an argument among friends to death at the hands of a stranger.

In 1981, the statistics show, the typical killer was a 24-year-old white man. The typical victim was a 27-year-old white man with a blue-collar job. The killer knew his victim and killed him in his home. Typically, the killer did it with his hands: He used a knife or his fists or a bit of rope.

A typical homicide in the early 1980s went much like that of Charles Atnip, a Garden Grove wholesale stereo salesman. On Jan. 26, 1982, Atnip and a co-worker, David Maples, went together to a liquor store after work. According to court records, the two got into an argument after Maples, 21, kept Atnip waiting in the car while he played a Pac-Man video game.

The two drove to Maples’ house, where they continued arguing, and Maples grabbed his shotgun and shot Atnip dead.

Maples told the neighbors to call the police, and he waited for the officers to arrive.

“I never intended to kill anybody,” Maples told the judge. He got two years in prison.

Fast forward to 1995. The typical murderer and the typical victim are now both Latinos. The murderer is 22 years old; the victim is 19. The typical killer and the typical victim no longer know each other. The murder is generally gang-related. The victim most often dies in the street or on the sidewalk. The handgun is the weapon of choice.

“In the old days, we had Mom and Pop killings; the detective would walk in and the person would be sitting there with the gun in their lap,” said McNamara, the former police chief. “Now, the murders are related to drugs and gangs, and young people are carrying them out.”

A representative homicide from the mid-1990s might be that of Michael Valenzuela, a 20-year-old Santa Ana man. On July 16, 1994, Valenzuela went to a street party on South Sycamore. It had been advertised by flier and was open to all.

Two groups of young men at the party began fighting, and a teenager pulled out a gun and shot Valenzuela dead.

By the time Santa Ana homicide investigators arrived, dozens of party-goers had already fled. The detectives questioned about 40 people that day. Later they talked to another 80 who had been at the party or knew people who were.

“We put the entire homicide unit on that case,” said Santa Ana’s Lt. Mooney. That’s 12 investigators.

The Valenzuela case is not typical in one respect: Police solved it. After a year of investigating, the details of the case began to emerge. Most of the males at the party belonged to gangs with names like Straight Out Island Style and initials like EK and OHT and TFK.

A handful of witnesses fingered Bobby Cabalo, a 17-year-old Santa Ana youth who was member of SOIS. The men coming into the party had been searched for firearms, but Cabalo smuggled in a pistol inside his girlfriend’s knapsack.

Cabalo’s cousin, Nestor Cabalo, testified against Bobby.

“As I looked back, I seen Bobby back there and I seen him shoot and the guy flew back,” he testified, crying on the witness stand.

Last year, Bobby Cabalo pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to eight years in the juvenile detention system.

*

Police and prosecutors offer two reasons why they are solving so few of the county’s murders: The lack of evidence left by a typical gang murder, and the unwillingness of so many witnesses to testify.

One recent case that has stumped police is that of Rodrigo Ortiz, a 17-year-old high school senior in Anaheim.

Early Nov. 17, a Sunday morning, Ortiz drove his father and uncle down First Street in Santa Ana to the family’s home. As he approached Raitt Street, Ortiz’s blue 1978 Buick Regal was showered with bullets. One hit Ortiz in the back of the neck.

“We were driving down the road, and then all of a sudden there were many shots,” said Jose Ortiz, the young victim’s father. “I didn’t see anything.”

The Santa Ana police aren’t optimistic about solving Ortiz’s murder any time soon.

“We have a dead guy and two people who didn’t see anything,” said Mooney. “That’s our starting point.”

Even more frustrating is that when witnesses are found, they often refuse to testify.

Scott Mundt, for instance, was beaten to death in full view of many of the residents of the Tustin Village Apartments, in the courtyard next to the pool. His killers dragged Mundt to his apartment and dumped him inside, where his mother later found him.

Police found few willing witnesses.

“Everyone had balconies and windows, and there was plenty of light,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Vickie Hix, who prosecuted Mundt’s murder. “No one would come forward.”

After a time, the police found three witnesses: a 6-year-old boy, a second juvenile and an adult.

Based on their statements, the police arrested four suspects, including Rene Rodriguez and Oscar Rico. Investigators said both were members of Santa Ana’s Middle- side gang. Rodriguez lived in Mundt’s apartment complex.

Then the adult witness got edgy. He told prosecutors he was afraid, and they agreed to move him to another apartment complex. They helped him pay his first and last month’s rent.

He and the two juveniles testified in court and helped convict one juvenile in Mundt’s murder. One was acquitted.

Then the witnesses cracked.

The 6-year-old was too traumatized to go on.

“He was throwing up during breaks in his testimony,” said Tom Tarpley of the Tustin police.

Then the adult witness changed his story and refused to testify.

“He told us he had been threatened,” Hix said. “We had no choice but to drop the charges.”

The two adults accused of Mundt’s murder were among 14 defendants against whom murder charges were dismissed in 1995. Nearly a third of the defendants whose cases were handled by gang prosecutors last year were either acquitted or had their charges dropped.

Prosecutors subsequently refiled charges--and won convictions--against a majority of the defendants whose cases were dismissed. Still, Mundt’s case illuminates the pitfalls that police and prosecutors often face in trying to put killers in jail.

“Gang murders are much more difficult for us,” Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Maury Evans said. “People are afraid to testify.”

Even today, most of the adult residents of the Tustin Village Apartments, where Mundt died, say they have no gang problem. The children tell a different story.

“There are gangs all over the place here,” said an 11-year-old boy who lives in the complex.

*

The slaying of Ronnie Tinoco on Nov. 21, 1993, has proved especially frustrating to police. Tinoco, 21, of Orange, was chatting with a group of young women at a “flier party” in Santa Ana when a young man walked up, pressed a gun against his head and pulled the trigger four times.

“I yelled, ‘No!’ but he kept shooting him,” said Ilda Quirino, a single mother of four who threw the party.

Quirino was baffled: She said she had made sure everyone was patted down for firearms before she let them in.

When police arrived, they found bullet casings scattered across the ground. About 50 people attended the party, but no one identified the killer.

“Whenever someone gets killed in this neighborhood, no one knows anything,” said Mary Socoro Villa, who lives down the street from where Tinoco was killed. “No one sees anything.”

That same weekend, four other young Latinos were killed and two others wounded. It was one of the most murderous weekends in Orange County history.

Of the five homicides that weekend, three are still unsolved--in large part, police say, because no one will cooperate.

“‘We take care of our own business, that’s the way the gangs work,” said Arturo, a Santa Ana teen whose shoulders bear the tattoos of a local street gang.

Arturo and a companion, Charles, spoke earlier this month as they stood in front of a Chevron Foodmart at the intersection of McFadden Avenue and Bristol Street in Santa Ana.

“There’s nothing worse than a rat,” said Charles, jamming his hands into his baggy pants.

*

The proliferation of gangs has created another new class of especially baffling homicides. Every so often, hospital workers around the county discover a body at their emergency room door. The body often carries no identification.

Police believe the bodies are often dumped by gang members who were trying to carry a wounded buddy to the hospital, only to have him die along the way.

Investigators believe that that is how Fernando Gutierrez, 22, ended up in the parking lot of Santa Ana Hospital Medical Center last Dec. 29. Gutierrez, who had a prior conviction for assault with a deadly weapon, was a gang member, police said.

“They just dump ‘em and split,” Sgt. John Kelley of the Anaheim Police Department said. “They just drive ‘em up and throw em out.”

In Santa Ana alone, investigators say they have five unsolved homicide cases that began with the discovery of a body outside an emergency room.

*

The drop in homicides that began in 1994 is buoying the spirits of police, prosecutors and others in the community. After a peak of 197 murders in 1993, Orange County may have fewer than 110 this year.

“We pray that the decline is not just a swinging of the pendulum,” said David of Los Amigos.

Even so, few experts are optimistic that the huge backlog of unsolved murders will disappear any time soon.

“If you gave us 10 more detectives, I’m not sure we would arrest any more people,” Santa Ana Lt. Mooney said. “If the evidence isn’t there, it doesn’t matter how many police you have.”

Also contributing to this report was Times staff writer Janet Wilson.

*

Sunday: A wave of murders that pushed the county’s homicide rate to all-time highs is receding. Even more striking is the decline in juvenile and gang killings, which fueled the overall rise.

Today: A colder, more random type of homicide is stumping investigators at a rate Orange County has never seen. Only half of murders are now being solved--a 43% drop since 1981.

Tuesday: A lull in the killing gives police investigators hope they can begin to make a dent in a mountain of unsolved cases, where the dead have been denied justice, and their survivors still suffer the lack of closure.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Getting Away with Murder

Nearly 90% of Orange County murders used to be solved, or “cleared” in police parlance--meaning the alleged killer or killers were arrested and handed over to courts for trial. But the percentage of murders being solved has fallen sharply since 1981, to the point where murderers escape arrest roughly half the time.

Murders Solved

1981: 88.5%

1982: 77.1

1983: 62.0

1984: 65.7

1985: 61.7

1986: 69.4

1987: 73.3

1988: 59.0

1989: 60.7

1990: 58.4

1991: 48.4

1992: 44.5

1993: 53.6

1994: 52.0

1995: 50.6

Evading Prosecution

Not everyone arrested on suspicion of murder ends up facing homicide charges. During the past six years that prosecutors have kept detailed records, the district attorney’s office has declined to press charges against roughly 20% of homicide suspects arrested.

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Homicide Charged arrests w/homicide 1990 115 92 1991 138 97 1992 104 78 1993 176 128 1994* 134 136 1995 120 99

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* Two cases from earlier years

Prosecution Problems

Not only are police catching a smaller percentage of Orange County’s killers, but convictions are becoming more difficult to obtain.

Convictions per Loss

1990: 21.25

1991: 11.6

1992: 9.2

1993: 6.6

1994: 14.1

1995: 4.4

% Cases Lost

1990: 4.4

1991: 8.1

1992: 9.9

1993: 13.0

1994: 6.5

1995: 18.6

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1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 Defendants processed* 90 99 111 108 124 113 Convictions 1st degree 33 32 38 35 47 37 Convictions 2nd degree 20 35 29 28 29 27 Convictions manslaughter 19 18 28 22 24 24 Convictions lesser charge** 13 8 6 8 13 4 Total convictions 85 93 101 93 113 92 Acquittals 2 4 2 3 2 5 Dismissals*** 2 4 9 11 9 16 Total Losses 4 8 11 14 8 21

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* Homicide charges disposed of in year. Defendants leave the criminal justice system via jury trial, trial by a judge, by guilty plea or dismissal.

** No conviction of homicide as charged, but of lesser, related offenses such as burglary, robbery or child endangerment.

*** Charges dismissed by a judge, generally for lack of evidence. Prosecutors say they often refile charges and eventually win convictions against 20% of those whose cases were dismissed.

Source: California Department of Justice, Annual Criminal Justice Profiles, and Orange County district attorney’s annual homicide reports

Differing Success

Orange County police have reported making arrests in a growing percentage of murder cases involving white victims, but are less successful nabbing killers of Latinos, who are more often the victims of gang-related street shootings with few clues to help homicide detectives. Whites and Latinos together have accounted for more than 80% of county murder victims over the past decade and a half. Percentage of homicides resulting in arrest:

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White Latino victim victim 1981 39% 27% 1982 40 18 1983 32 31 1984 38 20 1985 39 39 1986 50 35 1987 41 35 1988 40 35 1989 66 27 1990 46 32 1991 43 18 1992 47 23 1993 55 28 1994 67 33 1995 61 28

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Source: California Department of Justice, Supplemental Homicide Reports 1991-95

Murder and Race

In the early 1980s, most Orange County murder victims were white. Fifteen years later, that is less often the case, both in numbers and as a percentage of total victims. Because of demographic changes since 1980, the odds of a white becoming a murder victim have declined, while Latinos are at greater risk.

Murder Victims

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White Latino Other 1981 54 33 7 1982 40 34 12 1983 47 39 11 1984 50 35 15 1985 59 46 11 1986 56 40 11 1987 29 54 9 1988 57 51 14 1989 44 73 27 1990 50 82 19 1991 37 93 22 1992 47 97 28 1993 47 121 29 1994 36 113 22 1995 41 101 22

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Victim Ethnicity

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White Latino Other 1981 57% 35% 8% 1982 47 40 13 1983 49 40 11 1984 50 35 15 1985 51 40 9 1986 52 37 11 1987 32 59 9 1988 47 42 11 1989 31 51 18 1990 33 54 13 1991 24 61 15 1992 27 56 17 1993 24 61 15 1994 21 66 13 1995 25 62 13

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Source: California Department of Justice, Supplemental Homicide Reports 1991-95

Big-City Problems

Santa Ana, Anaheim and Garden Grove together accounted for well over half the murders in Orange County during the past 15 years, and all three have seen their murder “clearance” rates tumble. Looking at 1995 alone, Santa Ana police reported they solved only 26% of murders occurring that year. Viewed another way, getting away with murder in Santa Ana was not the exception last year; it was the rule. Murders and clearances in the largest cities:

ANAHEIM

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Murders Solved 1981-85 71 51 1986-90 91 57 1991-95 142 71 15-year total 304 179

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% of Cases Solved 1981-85 73% 1886-90 62 1991-95 50 1981-95 59

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FULLERTON

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Murders Solved 1981-85 22 9 1986-90 25 18 1991-95 21 17 15-year total 68 44

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% of Cases Solved 1981-85 41% 1886-90 72 1991-95 81 1981-95 65

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GARDEN GROVE

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Murders Solved 1981-85 46 35 1986-90 54 38 1991-95 38 22 15-year total 138 95

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% of Cases Solved 1981-85 76% 1886-90 70 1991-95 58 1981-95 69

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HUNTINGTON BEACH

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Murders Solved 1981-85 28 24 1986-90 28 19 1991-95 30 21 15-year total 86 64

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% of Cases Solved 1981-85 86% 1886-90 67 1991-95 70 1981-95 74

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IRVINE

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Murders Solved 1981-85 8 7 1986-90 8 5 1991-95 7 5 15-year total 23 17

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% of Cases Solved 1981-85 87% 1886-90 62 1991-95 71 1981-95 74

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ORANGE

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Murders Solved 1981-85 19 15 1986-90 21 19 1991-95 31 23 15-year total 71 57

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% of Cases Solved 1981-85 79% 1886-90 90 1991-95 74 1981-95 80

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SANTA ANA

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Murders Solved 1981-85 141 81 1986-90 196 105 1991-95 341 113 15-year total 678 299

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% of Cases Solved 1981-85 57% 1886-90 54 1991-95 33 1981-95 44

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Source: California Department of Justice, Jurisdictional Trends Report

Murder Then and Now

The typical Orange County murder has changed remarkably in the past 15 years. In 1981, homicides were often the result of arguments between friends. By 1995, murder usually meant death at the hands of a stranger. Police say the latter is far more difficult to solve. How the typical homicide has changed:

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1981 1995 Killer Sex: Male Male Race: White Latino Age: 24 19 Victim Sex: Male Male Race: White Latino Age: 27 19 Weapon: Hands (knife, fists, rope) Handgun Time: 10 p.m. 9:30 p.m. Location: Victim’s home Street/sidewalk Precipitating event: Argument Gang-related Killer-victim relationship: Know each other Strangers

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Source: California Department of Justice, Supplemental Homicide Reports 1991-95, Times reports