Jury Convicts Man in Arleta Triple-Slaying

A jury convicted a gang member Wednesday of murdering three men and wounding another at a birthday party in Arleta last year.

Juan Guillen, 26, of Palmdale was found guilty of first-degree murder in the Jan. 14, 2001, deaths of alleged gang members Joel Gonzalez, 27, of Arleta; Jesse Abel, 24, of Pacoima; and Jack Loutsios, 17, of North Hills.

He was also found guilty in the attempted murder of German Lopez, 21.

Family members of the slain victims wept in the back of the San Fernando courtroom as the clerk read the verdicts.

“Last night I was thinking, Jack would have been 19 on March 2,” said Loutsios’ mother, Donna. “I wonder what he would have looked like? What would he have been doing?”

During the three-week trial, Deputy Dist. Atty. Shellie Samuels presented a ballistics expert who linked 15 of the 16 shell casings found at the scene to the same gun, and three witnesses who testified that Guillen was the shooter.

Guillen’s attorney, Nancy Mazza, argued that a Los Angeles police detective coerced and threatened witnesses, and she questioned the credibility of prosecution witnesses who are gang members.

Guillen continued to insist he is innocent in a brief interview after the verdict from a cell near the courtroom.

“I couldn’t believe it, it was too quick,” he said of the one-day deliberation by the jury of six men and six women. “They didn’t look into everything.”

Guillen said he wanted to tell family members he was sorry. “I feel as bad as they do,” he said. “Nobody expected anything like that at the party. But they shouldn’t assume I was guilty.”

Neighbors testified that they heard shots coming from different directions, which Mazza said meant there was more than one assailant involved.

Mazza said she would appeal.

Survivors of the victims said their relatives were innocent bystanders and not part of a gang.

Guillen is to be sentenced by Judge Charles Peven on April 8. He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.