Four Youths Stand Trial in Said Retaliation Slaying

Published on 7/17/10
The Monterey County Herald
By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY, Herald Salinas Bureau

Fifteen-year-old Jose Manuel Perez was an innocent victim, gunned down in blind retaliation by gang members during a spate of violence in 2009, according to testimony in a Salinas courtroom this week.

Police detectives said Perez, a Salinas High School football player not affiliated with gangs, was the random victim of four Sureño gang members out to avenge the shooting of another Sureño an hour earlier on Aug. 6, 2009. They said three of the accused implicated the fourth, then-17-year-old Carlos Espinoza, as being the shooter.

After a two-day preliminary hearing, Judge Terrance Duncan on Friday ordered Espinoza, and alleged accomplices Antonio Gayosso, 20, Julio Luna Montoya, 21, and Juan Pablo Nunez, 19, to stand trial on charges of murder and attempted murder with gang enhancements. Each faces a life term if convicted. They will be arraigned Aug. 13.

According to testimony Thursday, Gayosso told police an older Sureño gang member ordered the four to "take care of business" after a fellow gang member was shot on Sanborn Street in Salinas. With Gayosso and Montoya driving separate cars, detectives said, the four then went hunting for Norteños to shoot.

On Terrace Street, a Norteño territory, they found Perez talking to another youth. That teen, who was identified as "JDG1," had tatoos suggesting gang membership. He told police he saw two cars pull up and a Sureño he knew by the name of "Flaco" step out and open fire. He ran and was not injured. Perez was shot and fell to the ground.

Detective James D. Godwin testified the confidential witness later positively identified Espinoza in a photo lineup.

Police said Gayosso, Nunez and Montoya all identified Espinoza as the shooter. Detective Arlene Currier testified that Montoya insisted he was unaware of the impending assault and was stunned to see Espinoza walk up and fire into Perez as he lay in a fetal position in the ground.

Defense lawyers pointed out that Gayosso initially said Nunez carried out the attack, then changed his story after Nunez implicated Espinoza. Gayosso's attorney, Steve Liner, said his client told police he had to comply with the order or be attacked, especially when Espinoza got in his car with a gun.

The attorneys also challenged Salinas police gang expert Brian McKinley's testimony that all four suspects were active Sureño gang members at the time of the shooting.

Liner said McKinley based his conclusion about Gayosso partly on his use of the word "homie" to describe the person shot on Sanborn Street. In common lexicon the word is used to refer to a friend, Liner said.

McKinley said Gayosso asked to be "debriefed" and housed with gang dropouts after his arrest.

Nunez's attorney, Susan Chapman, noted that her client had no gang convictions and had had no gang-related contacts with police since 2008.

Espinoza's defender, Bryan Keller, elicited laughter in the courtroom when he said McKinley's assertion that two gang members talking constituted gang activity was akin to saying that two police officers at a barbecue were engaged in police activity.