Opening day: San Jose gang trial reveals violent and twisted logic
By Tracey Kaplan


tkaplan@mercurynews.com

Posted: 01/18/2011 07:46:40 PM PST
Updated: 01/18/2011 07:59:36 PM PST

It's a world where "church'' is short for gang meeting, "baby'' is slang for gun and "diapers'' are bullets. It's where a rash of four killings and 11 shootings in just a few weeks makes perfect sense.

The twisted logic behind gang carnage was revealed Tuesday in all its sick glory, on the first day of what could be a nine-month-long murder trial involving one of San Jose's most notorious crews.

But even as the 47-page indictment promises to weaken El Hoyo Palmas, gang violence is once again on the rise in San Jose, with two killings so far in the first 17 days of the year.

In a riveting three-hour opening statement, prosecutor Stacey Capss laid out how El Hoyo Palmas' four-month bloody spree in late 2006 and early 2007 was triggered by the killing of two associates in the Norteños gang by rival Sureños. But the wave of violence that injured six people and killed four also took out people who had nothing to do with gangs, including locksmith Hernan Koba, who left behind two little girls and was merely trying to open someone's car door.

"Everything about this case is a seriously tragic waste of life,'' prosecutor Stacey Capps told a courtroom under heavy security, including three more armed bailiffs than usual. But "to be down with Palmas, you need to prove yourself with violent acts.''

The case alleges that Gene "Shorte'' Sanchez essentially directed a hit squad of three young men: Samuel "Rico'' Castro, Michael

"Negro'' Espana and Orlando "Gangster'' Rojas, who was only 17 at the time but is being prosecuted as an adult. All four are charged with conspiring to commit murder, and the alleged hit squad is also charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder. If they are convicted, Sanchez faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, and the three other men, multiple terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Cop witness

Capps and San Jose detectives relied on cell phone records, witness statements and ballistic reports that tie the guns to multiple shootings. However, the strongest evidence comes from five key witnesses, including a San Jose police officer who will testify that he witnessed one of the homicides. Three "snitches'' from either El Hoyo Palmas or the Nuestra Familia prison gang that oversees the crew will take the stand and another witness is listed as a friend of a gang member who committed suicide.

San Jose police officer James Hussey watched in horror through night-vision googles as two men fired 14 shots into locksmith Koba's body on March 30, 2007. One of the informants will testify he was told the gang shot Koba during what was a robbery because Koba was reluctant to turn over his cell phone.

Hussey saw the killing because he was part of a surveillance team watching EHP members, after police got a tip claiming the gang was responsible for some of the previous incidents from the friend of a gangster who had shot himself to death. But the officer couldn't interfere, police have said, because the information the tipster supplied wasn't sufficient to provide probable cause.

The officer had no idea the men would shoot Koba "because he didn't fit stereotype of people who had been hit,'' because he wasn't a young Hispanic male, prosecutor Capps also told the jury of nine women and three men.

But in brief opening statements, defense attorneys Wes Schroeder and Pat Kelly cautioned jurors to consider the motive of the informants in the case -- who either already have or are hoping to trade the information for relatively lenient sentences for extremely serious crimes. Schroeder also said the mother of one of the victims may fly up from Mexico to testify that her stepson all but confessed he was the one who shot her son, not gang members.

Gang lifestyle

In a Powerpoint presentation detailing the voluminous welter of names and dates in the case, Capps included the usual graphic photographs depicting the bloodshed. But along with those photos were unexpected images the gang had loaded on myspace and uTube, showing members proudly gathered at barbeques and even a carwash to raise money for the funeral of the colleague who had shot himself to death.

However, the prosecutor noted, a closer look reveals the young men are flashing gang signs at those events and wearing black baseball caps with the letter "P,'' which are handed out only to members who have committed violent acts. The gang, which deals methamphetamine and cocaine, boasts five generations of members, who at one time or another have included boys who were only 11 years old.

In a search of alleged ringleader Sanchez's house, police turned up "lots of fresh Palmas hats ready to be handed out to new recruits,'' Capps said.

But the most surrealistic thing police found was the gang's code of conduct, written in tiny lettering on a scrap of paper known as a "kite.'' Messages on "kites" are often smuggled to gang members behind bars, sometimes by sailing them airborne over jail fences.

The note spells out crystal clear gang rules for operating in a world that appears to outsiders as chaotic and randomly violent: "No drinking or smoking before church,'' meaning gang meetings.'' "No Palmero is to take part in any mission,'' meaning violent act, "while intoxicated or under the influence.'' Then the note sounds an ominous warning: "We demand respect and will not settle for anything less.''

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-new ... ck_check=1