Gang Member Gets 52 Years to Life for Fatal Crime Spree

As his mother wept plaintively, a 20-year-old Camarillo gang member was sentenced to 52 years to life in prison Friday for his role in a deadly crime spree across Ventura County 1 1/2 years ago.

Arturo Contreras Jr. sat stoically as Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren handed down the sentence and described the former Camarillo High School student as a killer and a gang thug.

“The callousness of the killing in this case is unspeakable,” Perren said, questioning whether Contreras even knew the name of the Moorpark man he was convicted of slaying.

Jesus Manjarrez, a 25-year-old movie usher, was gunned down at an intersection on the night of Dec. 3, 1995, when Contreras and three fellow gang members mistook him as a member of a rival gang.

Although Contreras did not pull the trigger, he was convicted of second-degree murder for instigating the slaying.

“He was the mastermind,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Matt Hardy said Friday during Contreras’ sentencing hearing. “If he hadn’t been driven by the arrogance of his gang that night, none of this would have happened.”

As he spoke, Josephina and Arturo Contreras Sr. cried softly in the back of the courtroom, her sniffles punctuating the hourlong proceeding.

Hardy described the Contrerases as a fine family, one he attends church with, who did everything they could for their son.

But despite their efforts, Hardy said, the teenage son chose to follow a destructive path that resulted in the killing of an innocent man on his way home from work.

“This is a young man who has had the privilege of our public school system,” Hardy said. “He wasn’t a victim.”

In a letter sent to Perren before his sentencing, Contreras admitted that he made mistakes as a youth and asked the judge for leniency.

“I know I let myself hang around with the wrong crowd,” he wrote. “The victims I do feel bad for and I know nothing can change what’s happened . . . I just hope to have you understand how sorry I am.”

During the hearing, defense attorney Richard W. Hanawalt urged Perren to consider his client’s age before handing down a sentence. He asked the judge to reduce the charges, arguing that the jury--which deliberated for only 1 1/2 days--rushed to judgment.

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Hanawalt had previously asked for a new trial on grounds that his client was not properly represented during the trial by his previous lawyer, but withdrew that request Friday.

“This is a case where I am asking the judge to act as a 13th juror,” Hanawalt said, standing beside his client, who was dressed in blue jail clothes.

“This was not something that was planned,” he said, arguing that his client had no idea what would happen at the intersection in Moorpark.

That claim was supported by another letter in Contreras’ court file--one from the 20-year-old who actually shot Manjarrez.

“Arturo Contreras is accused of something he did not know was going to happen,” wrote Michael Castro, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced last year to 30 years in state prison.

In addition to Castro, two Camarillo teens--both 17 at the time of the shooting--were sentenced for their involvement in the crimes.

Jose Duarte was sentenced to 15 years in state prison for armed robbery. The other teen was convicted in juvenile court of being an accessory to murder and sentenced to 150 days in the California Youth Authority.

In his summary of the events, Hanawalt described the crime spree as “51 minutes of aggravated vandalism,” lubricated by alcohol the four young men, ages 17 to 20, were drinking that night.

But Perren disagreed, summing up the events of Dec. 3, 1995, in sharply different terms.

With Contreras at the wheel, he said, the gang members committed a racially motivated drive-by shooting at a house where children were sleeping. They then drove to Somis and robbed a man in front of a liquor store.

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And in a final act of violence, the gang members shot and killed Manjarrez at a traffic light that will “forever be red” for the victim’s family.

“This is the defining horror show in the community,” the judge concluded.

“They shot up a house, they stuck up a guy . . . and ultimately, not having gotten their satisfaction for the evening, they slew a human being just like a farmer slays cattle,” Perren said. “Society has a right to protect itself from such people.”

Perren sentenced Contreras to 15 years to life in prison for murder. The sentence was automatically doubled because the crime represents Contreras’ second strike under the state’s three-strikes law.

Contreras was given an additional year because a firearm was used in the slaying.

Turning to the other charges, Perren sentenced Contreras to seven years for the drive-by shooting, which was also doubled to 14 years.

The man known as “Ice Cube” to his gang friends was given an additional two years for the robbery in Somis and five years for violating his probation from an earlier crime.

In that case, Contreras was also the wheelman when a group of teens mugged a woman for her purse in a Camarillo shopping center.

“It was like a preview of coming attractions,” Perren said in court Friday.

Under the state’s sentencing laws, Contreras must first serve 85% of his sentence for the lesser crimes, which total 22 years. He must then serve 85% of the 30 years on the murder sentence before becoming eligible for parole. That means he would not be eligible for parole before 2041. Contreras would be 64.