Appellate court upholds conviction in deadly 2005 train derailment
A state appellate court panel has upheld the conviction of a man who caused the deadly Metrolink train derailment in 2005 in Glendale.
A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury convicted Juan Manuel Alvarez in 2008 of 11 counts of first-degree murder and one count of arson for drenching his Jeep Cherokee with gasoline and parking it on the train tracks near the border with Atwater in January 2005, causing the massive derailment.
Eleven people died and nearly 200 were injured.
Attorneys for Alvarez, who was sentenced to serve 11 consecutive life sentences in prison, had sought to overturn the convictions, arguing in the California 2nd District Court of Appeal last week that her client only intended to kill himself when he parked his gasoline-drenched SUV on the tracks.
His attorney could not be immediately reached Tuesday.
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Appellate panel considers conviction in 2005 train derailment
-- Veronica Rocha, Times Community News
Twitter: @VeronicaRochaLA
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