Metrolink crash case goes to the jury

After nearly eight weeks of testimony, a jury Tuesday started deliberating the fate of a Compton man who left his vehicle on railroad tracks and caused a deadly Metrolink wreck three years ago.

Juan Manuel Alvarez, 29, is charged with 11 counts of murder and one count each of arson and train-wrecking. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

“Don’t forget these 11 victims,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Cathryn Brougham told the jury as she concluded her closing arguments Tuesday. “He sacrificed 11 lives.”

Jurors were shown life-and-death pictures of the dead -- smiling faces above images of bloody, mangled bodies buried in wreckage.

Prosecutors have argued that on the morning of Jan. 26, 2005, Alvarez doused his Jeep Cherokee with gas and parked it on the tracks about half a mile south of downtown Glendale, hoping to wreak havoc.

He ran from the vehicle shortly before a southbound Metrolink commuter train slammed into it, prosecutors said. The train derailed, struck a parked Union Pacific freight train and then collided with a northbound Metrolink train. In addition to the fatalities, at least 180 people were injured.

Alvarez and his attorneys have insisted that the train wreck was an accident that occurred after the defendant attempted to commit suicide but then changed his mind.

Through testimony from more than 80 witnesses, the jury heard about Alvarez’s troubled childhood, his drug addiction and paranoia, and his numerous attempts to end his own life. He was portrayed as a man obsessed with getting attention, a liar and a schemer who wanted to cause a big spectacle in an attempt to win back the affection of his estranged wife. A jury of nine women and three men must now decide his fate.

Attorneys for Alvarez have argued that their client is guilty of causing a terrible accident, but not murder.

“Did Mr. Alvarez act in conscious disregard of human life?” defense attorney Michael Belter asked jurors during his closing arguments Monday. “If the answer is no, then no matter how hard it is for you to decide this . . . you will have to agree that Mr. Alvarez caused a tragic, fatal accident.”

Although prosecutors are seeking first-degree murder convictions, Brougham explained several other options for jurors to convict Alvarez of lesser crimes if they do not find the intent to kill.

She told jurors this week that they could find him guilty of felony murder, in which a person who commits a crime, such as arson or train-wrecking, can be guilty of murder if deaths occur as a result of those actions. At a minimum, she said, he is guilty of second-degree murder for committing an act dangerous to human life.

“He was mad at the entire world,” Brougham said, “and he wanted to hurt somebody.”

--

ann.simmons@latimes.com

--

The Associated Press contributed to this report.