‘At Least Now the Killer Is in Jail’

For the first time in five years, Thanksgiving and the holiday season will arrive for the Fernandez family with a sense that justice has finally been done.

On Christmas Eve 1994, the family’s life took a dark turn when Rene Fernandez, a 19-year-old college student, was gunned down while trying to flee a gang attack in Santa Ana.

Ever since the killing, holiday seasons only brought painful memories for family members, who often wondered whether the killer would ever be held accountable.

But on Wednesday, family members’ long wait ended when a jury convicted a notorious gang member known as “Mad Dog” of murdering Fernandez and another teen. Steven Salgado was also convicted of three attempted murders and other violent offenses during a vicious crime wave in 1994 and 1995.

“I feel relieved now,” said Eva Fernandez, Rene’s mother. “Every year we have the worst Christmases. The memories just keep rushing back. But at least now the killer is in jail.”

Salgado, a 26-year-old member of the Southside Gang, will face a life term in prison without the possibility of parole when he is sentenced Jan. 12. The six-man, six-woman jury acquitted Salgado on a third murder charge involving the killing of a Santa Ana gang member.

Trial Hinged on Taped Confession

The convictions ended a five-week trial in Orange County Superior Court that centered largely on a videotaped confession made shortly after Salgado was arrested in 1995. Salgado’s attorney, Jack Earley, argued that the confession was coerced during a grueling, three-hour interrogation by Santa Ana police.

But prosecutors said Salgado was not pressured to admit to the crime spree. Most of the victims, including Fernandez, were not gang members and were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Salgado’s first murder victim, Juan Carlos Arteaga, a 15-year-old high school student, was shot three times in the face with a .38-caliber handgun after a party. Salgado, authorities said, mistakenly believed that Arteaga had killed a fellow gang member.

Fernandez’s tragic encounter with Salgado occurred when he and several friends drove by a gang hangout in search of marijuana, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. John Anderson. Believing they were rival gang members, Salgado confronted the teens after a high-speed car chase and shot one in the chest and another in the arm.

Fernandez, who had hidden underneath the car, was shot in the back of the neck as he tried to escape. “They made the mistake of trying to go and buy marijuana, and for that, Fernandez got killed,” Anderson said.

Eva Fernandez said the emotional toll following the murder was made worse by the numerous trial delays. At least three times the trial date was pushed back by attorneys requesting more preparation time.

“I would get so stressed every time the trial date approached, but then it would get delayed again,” she said. “It was so hard.”

Fernandez said her son always steered clear of gangs and spent most of his time studying or working at his job at South Coast Plaza. She still misses him, but she said the holidays this year will be much happier.

“It was like something lifted from deep inside me,” she said, describing the moment the jury verdict was read. “I’m so happy he’s going to prison.”