Man Found Guilty in Drive-By Killing of Boy, 13

A Los Angeles jury found a gang member guilty of first-degree murder Monday in the slaying of Joey Swift, a 13-year-old boy whose death in a drive-by shooting just after he left church sparked widespread community outrage.

James Bartel Collier, 26, was also convicted of seven counts of attempted murder for firing at the group of youths Joey was walking with on March 23, 2003. Only Joey was hit.

“I’m going to go to the cemetery and tell my son he can rest now,” said Joey’s mother, Lorri Arbuckle, who wept as family members tried to comfort her outside a downtown courtroom. “Justice has prevailed.”

The defendant took the witness stand during the two weeks of testimony before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Lance Ito and told jurors that he had acted in self-defense. He opened fire, he said, in response to someone else from the group of youths pulling a gun on him.

But jurors, who deliberated two days, didn’t believe his story.

“It didn’t make sense,” said jury forewoman Stephanie Denize, a 24-year-old preschool teacher in Downey. “I think he was trying to cover himself.”

Ballistic evidence showed that Collier fired at least eight bullets at the youths in a neighborhood just north of the Santa Monica Freeway near Crenshaw Boulevard. Deputy Dist. Atty. Gretchen Ford said Collier appeared to be aiming at a person he disliked in the group.

Collier, whom the prosecutor identified as a gang member, faces multiple life terms in prison without the possibility of parole. His attorney, Deputy Alternate Public Defender Mark Zavidow, could not be reached for comment.

On Monday, Joey’s family remembered him as a cheerful and popular boy who had wanted to be a minister.

“He was a great kid,” grandfather William Arbuckle said. “He went home. He’s in heaven where he came from.”

As for Collier, Arbuckle said: “It’s not easy ... but I forgive him because God tells me that’s what I’m supposed to do. I’ve been reading Job and talking to my pastor. I pray for his soul.”

Joey’s death, the latest of several slayings of children by gang members in Los Angeles, had galvanized police and community activists, who pledged to redouble efforts to stop gang violence. But the outrage has died down, and the gangs seem to have returned to business as usual in her family’s neighborhood, Joey’s mother said.

“These gangs are terrorists. They are terrorizing our neighborhoods,” Lorri Arbuckle said. “All these children are getting killed by gang violence. I think [President] Bush needs to focus on what’s going on here. There’s terrorism right here.”