Youthful Criminal Life Haunts Man of the Cloth

Preaching across rural Alabama, pastor Geronimo Galvan Burgos mixed Bible lessons with tales of his gang member youth in Southern California.

He spoke of lessons learned running with Santa Ana’s notorious Southside gang, accounts of drinking, drug-taking and violence. The poor Latino immigrants admired their young pastor, who had overcome a troubled past and embraced God and family. They watched his sermons on television. They helped him build a church. They witnessed his daughter’s baptism.

Then they saw him get arrested.

Soon after Burgos finished a Sunday service in February, Alabama police handcuffed the preacher and whisked him away for the start of a cross-country trip back to the city of his troubled youth, where he was wanted for a murder committed eight years earlier.

Burgos, 30, will be in court today to set a date for a trial in which jurors must somehow square the two very different sides of the defendant: violent gang felon and beloved country preacher. It’s something even detectives who tracked Burgos down are still struggling with.

“We were pretty much taken aback” when the trail led to Burgos, said Santa Ana Police Sgt. Dan Beaumarchais. “I’ve been investigating murders for a long time. This is the first pastor we’ve come across. . . . Everybody is intrigued by what makes somebody change like that.”

Despite Burgos’ new life, authorities said the facts of their case are clear. A witness identified Burgos as a passenger in a car that took part in a 1993 drive-by shooting in which two rival gang members were wounded and a third--18-year-old Christian Madera--died. They said Burgos aimed a gun from the passenger window but didn’t fire.

Prosecutors charged Burgos with murder, saying his participation in the crime made him as guilty as the actual killer. Still, it’s possible that prosecutors could offer Burgos leniency if he pleads guilty before a trial.

Burgos has pleaded not guilty and declined repeated interview requests. An Orange County judge was impressed enough by Burgos’ transformation that he slashed the pastor’s bail in half, to $125,000.

In May, church members raised the funds to bring their pastor home, where he continues to deliver sermons at his church in Russellville, Ala. He returned to Santa Ana recently, however, to huddle with attorneys about his defense.

“The people value him very, very much. He is an excellent man. Recto. Bien Recto”--very honorable,” said the Rev. Ramon Rivas, a Southern Baptist minister who worked with Burgos. “We need him.”

Police, however, said he must pay for his past--even if he’s changed his life.

“Here you have a kid who was involved in a street gang, who was involved in robberies and it escalated to murder. And a short time after that he left town,” said Sgt. Beaumarchais. “That’s not inconsistent with a lot of people in Santa Ana who commit killings.”

Burgos grew up in a neighborhood overrun by gangs. By the early 1990s, gang membership had risen to record levels--along with the violence.

Rivalries over territory and drug sales led to regular drive-by shootings, which prompted retaliations--a deadly cycle that lasted more than a decade. In 1993, the year Madera was killed, Santa Ana recorded 48 gang-related killings, a record that still stands.

“It was a crazy time,” said Santa Ana Police Cpl. Kevin Ruiz, a detective in the gang unit. “Everything just kind of hit a crescendo.”

Burgos, police say, was in the middle of it as an active member of Southside, one of the city’s oldest and most violent gangs. He was arrested at 19 after a series of armed robberies.

He Robbed 3 Stores in a Few Hours

Burgos robbed three mini-marts in the span of a few hours. He aimed his gun, demanded money and then began a chilling countdown: “15, 14, 13. . . .”

“I thought [for] sure I was going to be shot,” said Darryl Harnish, a witness to one of the robberies.

An officer on patrol arrested Burgos that night and caught him with $585 in cash, 12 grams of cocaine and some black tar heroin. After pleading guilty to armed robbery and drug possession, he was sentenced to five years in prison.

Soon after his parole, authorities contend, Burgos was back on the streets of Santa Ana running with the same gang crowd. In February 1993, he allegedly pointed a handgun at rival gang members from a passenger window of a car while another gang member fired, killing Madera. It was the last crime police say Burgos committed.

Friends and family deny that Burgos had any role in Madera’s death, saying he changed his life after the prison stint for the armed robbery. They say he got a job as a delivery man and vowed to stay off the streets.

One day in 1993, while walking in downtown Santa Ana, Burgos heard the sounds of a choir coming from a storefront church on Main Street, his family said.

His mother, Consuelo Galvan, said Burgos’ life was altered forever when he passed through those church doors. “He accepted God. He changed,” she said.

Burgos became a regular, arriving early and staying late to learn about the Bible. The pastor at that Santa Ana church, Juan Jose Medel, sent him to other churches to preach and tell his story. Burgos also made prison visits to counsel inmates.

Medel said Burgos became one of the most devout members of his Santa Ana congregation, a very serious and studious man who devoted himself entirely to his new calling. “He may have had problems in the past, but he was no trouble for us,” he said. “He was a good teacher.”

After three years, Medel suggested that Burgos lead his own church. It was in the vicinity of Muscle Shoals, Ala.

Once home to only black and white residents, the previous 10 years had seen a huge influx of poor immigrants from Latin America.

Burgos, newly married with two children, agreed to take on the challenge.

Revitalizing a Parish

The Rev. Roy Sherman invited Burgos to his tiny church in Russellville, where the congregation had dwindled to just 10 members. A white cinder-block building without a steeple, the church hadn’t been upgraded in years. Burgos and the new congregation started fixing it up.

They installed new carpeting, hung curtains and painted the building inside and out. They also bought a new pulpit and installed a heating system.

Burgos was an inspiring speaker, said Sherman, who retired after Burgos took over.

The tattoos that cover Burgos’ arms were a symbol of his past life, which he discussed openly with church members, troubled youths and recovering alcoholics. The congregation grew to the point that it plans to build a new church.

Rivas said Burgos’ life serves as an inspiration to others. Most of the Latinos in the area are poor immigrants, and some of the men have severe drinking problems. Because the county prohibits alcohol sales, they drive 30 miles to get liquor, and when they do, they often go on long binges.

Jaime Miguel, a factory worker from Tuscaloosa, Ala., said Burgos helped him kick a drinking problem. “I was in jail and he said, ‘God saved me and now God can save you too,’ ” Miguel said.

Burgos’ loyalists in Alabama said they didn’t think twice about raising bail money and welcoming him back into their lives. To them, whatever happened in Santa Ana is in the past.

“Geronimo lived in a different age and time, when street gangs and stuff like that was going on. I never faced that,” Sherman said.

“Boys are boys. I guess until we grow up and become men, we’re all children. But sometimes children get in trouble. I can understand that this is what happened to Geronimo. But he straightened out. . . . He’s a very wonderful man.”