Trial Ordered in Metrolink Deaths

A judge Thursday ordered a former construction worker to stand trial on charges of murdering 11 people by driving his SUV onto railroad tracks, triggering a massive chain-reaction train wreck.

Juan Manuel Alvarez, 26, has maintained since the January 26 tragedy that he intended to kill only himself when he drove his Jeep onto the Metrolink tracks near the Chevy Chase Drive crossing in Glendale.

But after two days of testimony in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom, prosecutors successfully argued that there was enough evidence to justify trying Alvarez.

“The best evidence that the guy wasn’t really trying to commit suicide is that he’s in court. He’s not dead,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Alan Jackson. “There’s nothing to suggest that this was an abortive suicide attempt.”

Alvarez could face the death penalty, although prosecutors have not yet announced whether they would seek it.

During the preliminary hearing before Superior Court Judge William Pounders, a Glendale city employee testified that he saw a man liberally douse an SUV-like vehicle with liquid shortly before the predawn crash. Police investigators identified that man as Alvarez and the liquid as gasoline.

“In my opinion, this was the functional equivalent of placing a 4,000-pound Molotov cocktail on the tracks ... and he used passenger Train 100 as the match,” Jackson said. “He was not only intending to derail a train ... he was also perpetrating an arson.”

Metrolink Train 100, which was heading south for Union Station filled with passengers, struck Alvarez’s Jeep, derailed, crashed into a freight train on an adjacent track and collided with an approaching northbound Metrolink train.

Alvarez’s next hearing is set for May 19.