Parents End Hunt for Killer of Son

For the better part of a year, Joseph and Claudette Valencia searched for clues that would help police catch their son’s killer.

Every Wednesday, Joseph sat at the Mid-City bus stop where his 19-year-old son Giovanni, a Marine who was home on leave, had been shot in broad daylight during an argument with a stranger last August. Joseph always had a framed picture of his son in uniform, a composite police sketch of the killer, and a large poster pleading for any leads.

Three Wednesdays ago, Det. Bob Felix told Joseph not to make his usual trip to the bus stop at Wilshire Boulevard and La Brea Avenue.

After nine months and 19 days--the Valencias were keeping count--police had finally found the man they believe shot Giovanni.

“I cried. They were tears of joy,” said Joseph, a 43-year-old sanitation worker. “That was the beginning of healing. A little bit of the weight I’ve been carrying has been taken off.”

Now the Valencias, who live 11 blocks from the site of the slaying, turn to rebuilding their family, which includes three other children. “It’s opened a new chapter for us,” Claudette said.

The first chapter was written when Giovanni Valencia, stationed at Camp Pendleton and recently promoted to lance corporal, was preparing to leave for his first overseas assignment, to Japan. His parents, immigrants from Belize, were relieved that he was escaping the gang-infested neighborhood.

About 1 p.m. on Aug. 5, Giovanni took a bus to the bank. He had lunch at a fast-food restaurant with a friend. They walked across the street to a bus stop. There, Giovanni exchanged challenging looks with another young man--a momentary confrontation known on the street as a “stare-down.” That led to a heated argument that turned into a fistfight.

Giovanni’s friend futilely tried to stop it as Giovanni overpowered his opponent, witnesses told police. The other young man, who had identified himself as a member of a citywide gang, walked away and returned with a gun, shooting Giovanni to death.

Felix and his partner in the Wilshire Division, Det. Tracey Benjamin, led the investigation of Giovanni’s killing.

Felix’s colleagues call him “Mr. Homicide” for his doggedness. He has been on the force 31 years, the last 10 working homicide. Normally, he does not attend the funerals of the victims in his cases. Here he made an exception.

“I wanted to give the family support,” he said. “I can remember all the victims and suspects in all of my cases. It stays with you.

“The sad thing is that he was raised in an area plagued by gangs. He was able to survive in this neighborhood for so long. Then he finally leaves and comes back and he’s killed.”

Benjamin, a 10-year veteran, was moved by the parents’ relentlessness. “They were so adamant about finding the killer and getting the peace they need to move on with their lives,” she said.

Even when Benjamin was transferred to another division in March, she continued with the case. Early mornings and late nights became common as the detectives followed dozens of leads.

Their biggest advantage was knowing which gang the suspect claimed. (They declined to identify the gang.) They had to work a wide variety of neighborhoods outside the Wilshire Division because the killing occurred around an area served by buses; the person they were looking for could have lived anywhere.

They checked all the high schools and continuation schools from Hollywood to the Westside, looking at the schools’ rosters and yearbook pictures, showing the results to witnesses. Binder after binder filled up with pictures of gang members and others who fit the description of the killer--but whom none of the witnesses recognized.

Months passed. Det. Daryn Dupree took over for Benjamin. Joseph called the detectives twice a week. On other occasions, the detectives called him and his wife to keep them informed.

Joseph became a regular at the street corner where his son last stood, talking to anyone who would listen, checking tips on his own, running into dead ends.

One night, Joseph had a dream that the man who shot his son was driving a blue Cadillac. The next time he was at the bus stop he saw a man driving a blue Cadillac and chased him in his car. He lost him after a few blocks.

“Everyone started looking suspicious,” he said.

Then, in March, the primary witness to the shooting was looking through a binder of pictures and saw a man he believed to be the killer: a 20-year-old resident of South-Central Los Angeles named Jeffrey Morris, who had been in prison since December on an unrelated conviction.

The detectives discovered that Morris had been visiting his girlfriend in the area of the shooting about the time that it occurred. He also belonged to the gang that witnesses said was mentioned during the argument. Police interviewed him in prison and, within two months, the district attorney’s office filed charges.

On the afternoon of May 26, Det. Felix, who had knocked on the door of the Valencia home to tell the family that Giovanni had been murdered, again knocked, this time to tell them Morris was in custody.

On May 27, Joseph and Claudette began thinking about what they would do when they faced the suspect in court. “I just want to look him in his face,” Joseph said. “Raising kids in this neighborhood is tough. I put 110% in my kids. I know I didn’t make a mistake. I did a damn good job. He should not have taken my son’s life away.”

Claudette tries not to let her anger eat away at her. A devout Catholic, she prays often.

“I am learning to bear the pain,” she said. “I still cry. I cry a lot, especially when I can’t sleep at night.”

Everything Giovanni owned and touched remains undisturbed in his room. His voice is still on her answering machine.

She looks into the distance when she talks about him. He was bright, he was funny. He gave incredible massages, she says.

She tries not to cry around her other children because she wants to be strong for them.

She had a dream the other night. She was looking up at the sky. She could see Giovanni. She was waiting for him to look down at her. He finally did. Their eyes met. They were together again. She knew then that they would be together forever.