Defendant Guilty in 1998 Killings of Officer, Bystander

Jaime Mares, a 23-year-old Inglewood street gang member, was convicted of murder Tuesday in the 1998 shooting deaths of Los Angeles Police Officer Brian Brown and Gerardo Sernas, an innocent passerby.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury, which reached its verdict after three days of deliberations, will hear evidence beginning Thursday on whether Mares should be sentenced to death.

Brown, a 27-year-old single father, and Sernas, 18, were the victims of a horrific sequence of events that included the drive-by shooting of Sernas, a gun battle with police that left Brown and the suspected gunman dead, and a high-speed chase through Culver City to Los Angeles International Airport ending in Mares’ arrest.

Mares, accused of being an accomplice of the gunman, sat between his lawyers and shook his head from side to side when the clerk announced the verdicts.

In a courtroom packed with police officers and family members of the victims, one of Mares’ relatives sat, tears streaming down her face, as she heard the clerk read the guilty verdicts on eight counts of murder, attempted murder, evading police and auto theft.

At the other end of the row sat Brown’s parents and stepparents and Sernas’ mother and 15-year-old sister.

They displayed no reaction, apparently in deference to Judge William Pounders’ warning against courtroom displays that could unfairly influence jurors.

Moments earlier, Brown’s mother, Emily Calvert, wept as she approached Sernas’ mother, Felisitas, and embraced her and her daughter, Angelica. When the jury left, Calvert again broke down, hugging her husband, Richard, Police Capt. Gary Williams, who was Brown’s commanding officer, and others.

Felisitas and Angelica Sernas said they hope the jury will not impose the death penalty.

“Life in prison is enough,” Felisitas, 52, said.

In contrast, Officer Steve Fahrney, one three officers who held Brown as he died, said he hopes Mares is put to death. He said the case “made me realize more about human nature, how some people just don’t value life.”

Relatives of Brown did not comment Tuesday. Dylon Brown, the officer’s 10-year-old son, who spoke at a memorial for his father and attended the trial’s opening statements, was not in the audience Tuesday.

Mares’ lawyers, Victor Sherman and Marcia Morrissey, said they will appeal the verdict. Sherman said Mares has a strong case because the jury was not allowed to consider a verdict of second-degree murder, which, because a police officer was killed, is punishable by 25 years to life imprisonment.

“It’s just the first half of the ballgame,” Sherman said. “We thought we had put on a very good case.”

During the monthlong trial, Mares said that he had recently left the Inglewood-13 street gang and contended that he was unwittingly roped into participating in the shootings.

Mares, testifying in his own defense, said he and a friend, who was a member of the street gang, had been targets a day earlier of a drive-by shooting in Inglewood. Although Mares escaped unharmed, his friend was hurt.

The next day, he told jurors, Oscar Zatarain, an Inglewood-13 member, tricked him into going on a retaliatory drive-by shooting against a rival Culver City gang by saying they were simply going to take some guns to another person’s home. Mares said a friend of Zatarain went with them and directed him to Centinela Avenue near the Culver City border.

Mares contended that Zatarain and the friend, whom he did not know, jumped out of the car when they saw two youths--Sernas and Sernas’ lifelong friend Nobel Hernandez--and began shooting. Mares said he remained in the car and did not fire a shot. The unidentified man fled during the shooting, Mares said.

Mares said that when he saw Brown’s police cruiser, which was parked down the street, he started driving toward him to get help. But he said Zatarain jumped back into the car, stuck a rifle into his ribs and ordered him to drive away.

With Brown and his partner, Francisco Dominguez, in pursuit, Mares’s car spun out near Fox Hills Mall. Zatarain got out and started shooting at the pursuing police car, killing Brown. Mares ran away and then stole a taxi. He said he did so because he was afraid police would shoot him.

The chase ended at LAX, where police shot Mares several times as he attempted to run away, blinding him in one eye.

Prosecutors Keri Modder and Danette Meyers countered that Mares’ story defied common sense. They said Mares willingly participated in the rampage and had participated in previous acts of street gang violence, including a robbery and another drive-by shooting.

Modder said that in the fatal drive-by, Mares and Zatarain prowled Centinela Avenue searching for targets, and assuming Sernas and Hernandez were rival gang members, blasted away at them with semiautomatic assault rifles.

She said Zatarain got out of his car, hunted Sernas down and shot him seven times in the head as his victim tried to hide behind a parked car.