Suspect’s Parole Officer Had Urged Prison

A county probation officer wrote two months ago that state prison, not another probation sentence, should have been the fate of one of the three alleged Santa Ana gang members suspected in this week’s shooting of a woman who dared to challenge their graffiti vandalism.

Lisandro Fernandez, 20, of Anaheim has “put the community at risk with alleged escalating and illegal activity and potentially violent activity” and should be incarcerated “for the safety of the community,” according to a county probation officer’s report written Dec. 26.

While some of Fernandez’s violations were minor, probation officer Vicki West said the frequency of his probation violations and the seriousness of a few--multiple weapons violations--warranted a state prison term.

The repeat offenses “clearly demonstrate that [Fernandez] has not been deterred from continued criminal activity,” West said.

The report was written after Fernandez, who went by the street name of “Casper” and admitted to being a gang member for three years, had accumulated a lengthy arrest record.

Although he was found guilty of a number of traffic violations, Fernandez’s first serious brush with the law came in June 1995 when he was arrested for carrying a loaded .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol, possessing marijuana and vandalism, court records show.

Fernandez pleaded guilty to the charges, served 30 days in County Jail and was put on three years’ probation--a recurring punishment for his legal run-ins, records show.

A few months later, Fernandez violated his probation for the first of many times when he was arrested again for possession of three stolen credit cards, according to court records. He served another 90 days in County Jail, and again was placed on three years’ probation, records show.

Shortly after finishing that jail stint, Fernandez was arrested in late November 1995 for stealing a car, court records show. It marked the first time he was convicted of a felony, and he was sentenced to 120 days in County Jail, and again placed on three years’ probation, court records show.

Within a year of that conviction, Fernandez violated his probation twice more, according to court records.

In April, he was arrested by Newport Beach police for carrying an open container of alcohol. A subsequent police search turned up an illegal cellular phone. For the those offenses, a judge imposed a $100 fine and ordered him to serve 120 hours of community service, according to court records.

In November 1996, Santa Ana police caught Fernandez with a magazine clip of bullets and a semiautomatic rifle, court records show. According to the terms of his probation, a violation should have sent Fernandez to state prison. But it never did, court records show.

On Jan. 7, Municipal Judge Richard W. Stanford Jr. sentenced Fernandez to 75 days in County Jail and once again placed him on probation for three years, court records show.

“We can only make recommendations to the court,” said Rod Speer, a spokesman for the Orange County Probation Department. “It’s the judge that makes the call.”

Stanford could not be reached for comment late Friday.

Fernandez and another suspect--Jorge Francisco Trejo, 20, of Santa Ana--have thus far eluded an intensive law enforcement dragnet.

But Friday, police arrested John Arnold Villalobos, 25, of Santa Ana in connection with the Monday night shooting that left a 40-year-old Anaheim woman hospitalized.

The woman, whose name is being withheld for her safety, tried to stop the suspects from spray-painting graffiti on a garage door in Orange. The woman is listed in good condition.

Villalobos was arrested for weapons possession in 1993 and was sentenced to 180 days in County Jail and put on three years’ probation in February 1994, according to court records. It’s unclear from court records whether Villalobos was on probation at the time of the shooting.