Gang Member Sentenced to 19 Years to Life for Killing Girl

A San Bernardino gang member who stabbed a 15-year-old girl to death and then left her to die on a Garden Grove street was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison by a Superior Court judge on Friday.

Judge Richard W. Luesebrink, calling 20-year-old Alan David Salomon a “terrible danger,” imposed the maximum sentence and said he hoped the defendant would never be released from prison.

In December, a jury convicted Salomon of second-degree murder for the slaying of Mary Lewis on June 20, 1995. Salomon had only known her for about an hour.

Family members of the slain Huntington Beach High School student said Salomon’s senseless violence has caused them a lifetime of pain.

Robert Lewis said his life has been a “living hell” since he lost his sister.

“Can you imagine that, Mr. Salomon?” he asked, his voice choked with emotion as he looked at the defendant. “No, you can’t. You’re just too cold-hearted.”

Cried Christopher Lewis, another brother: “He didn’t even know her.”

Salomon, his own family in tears, sat impassively during the sentencing and declined to make a statement before the judge.

During his Orange County Superior Court trial, Salomon, known as “Lil Man” in his gang, blamed the stabbing on someone else. But two others riding in the girl’s car on the night of her death said he killed her in front of them after a minor dispute over gas money escalated out of control.

Another witness, who was not in the car, said Salomon bragged about killing Lewis, according to a sentencing report. Salomon gave Lewis $3 for gas and became upset when she asked for more, the witness told authorities.

Police and prosecutors said Lewis had met Salomon that evening, when she and four other youths, some belonging to an Orange County-based gang, drove to pick him up in San Bernardino. Lewis was not a member of the gang.

About 1 a.m., two hours after Lewis had called home to say she was going out for something to eat, the group stopped on Acacia Avenue in a quiet Garden Grove neighborhood to drop off one of the occupants.

There, Salomon stabbed Lewis, left her in the street, then fled in her car, witnesses said. Lewis, stabbed 14 times, including a fatal wound to the back of her neck, was found lying face up in a pool of blood. She died shortly after reaching a local hospital.

Salomon was arrested about two months later following an investigation that involved almost a third of the Garden Grove police force and help from police in El Cajon, where the Nissan belonging to Lewis’ parents had been found.

His criminal record dated back to the age of 13, and included convictions for vandalism, assault with a deadly weapon and escape from an Orange County Probation Department forestry camp.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeff Levy said he believed methamphetamine abuse may have played a role in Salomon’s behavior.

The victim’s relatives urged the maximum sentence, describing Lewis--the youngest of five children--as a “fun-loving kid” who was greatly loved by her family and friends. The courtroom was filled with sobs as one brother played messages left on his answering machine by his anguished mother and others on the night of Lewis’ murder.

“She didn’t deserve the sentence Alan Salomon imposed on her,” Regina Lewis, the victim’s mother, said.

Anita Lewis said her sister sometimes expressed fear that she would die young. Anita Lewis said she would respond: “ ‘Don’t worry. You’ll graduate from high school. You’ll have children.’

“But she didn’t.”