Man gets prison in child slaying

02:09 PM PDT on Thursday, October 4, 2007

By JOHN F. BERRY
The Press-Enterprise

SAN BERNARDINO - A tattoo-covered Luis Chavira was sent to prison Thursday after pleading guilty for his role in a high-speed car-to-car shooting on Interstate 15 last year that killed a 12-year-old Hesperia boy.

Chavira, 23, was making a routine courtroom appearance when he accepted a plea agreement and opted to be sent to prison immediately. He pleaded guilty to one count of voluntary manslaughter and shooting at an occupied vehicle. He also admitted to using a weapon.

He was sentenced to nearly 14 years in prison and fined $2,000.

Chavira is one of three suspects charged in the Dec. 11 shooting of Gabriel Garcia, described by authorities as an innocent boy caught up in the botched handoff of illegal immigrants in the Cajon Pass.

Defense attorney Stuart Holmes told San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge David Cohn that his client took the plea because he did not want to risk life in prison.

Like the other two suspects--Pedro Escobedo, 44, and Saul Juarez, 20--Chavira was facing a murder charge, which coupled with a conviction, could have sent him to prison for life.

Chavira made his plea moments after his co-defendants were ushered out of the courtroom. They return to court Nov. 16 for a pretrial hearing.

Deputy District Attorney Joanne Uhlman said the plea bargain did not say that Chavira had to testify for the prosecution.

Outside the courtroom, Chavira's mother, Sandra Contreas, struggled to refer to the fatal shooting of the boy.

"I understand my son is not the one who did 'the thing,' " she said. "But he was there."

Contreas, 43, said her son has two children, a 5-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl. She said their mother, with help of family, would raise the children while their father is in prison.

"I'm saddened my son got so much time," Contreas said. "We have to trust our attorney."

In December, Gabriel Garcia was a passenger in a Nissan Maxima being chased by a Ford Explorer south on Interstate 15 through heavy traffic, court records said. Two illegal immigrants from Mexico were in the back seat, records said.

Gunmen from the pursuing Ford Explorer fired at least 13 bullets at the fleeing Maxima before it exited near Norco and spun out at a shopping center, reports said.

The two illegal immigrants in the back seat climbed into the Explorer before it fled, report said.

The wounded driver of the Maxima, identified as illegal immigrant Gregorio Zuniga Hernandez, ran into a nearby department store where he bought a shirt and dressed in front of a cashier, reports said.

Hernandez later spoke with San Bernardino County sheriff's officials and said that he ended up driving the Maxima after a confrontation between illegal immigrant smugglers at a McDonald's in the Cajon Pass.

Gabriel, struck in the head by one of the shots, was left in the bullet-ridden Maxima. He was removed from life support about one week after the shooting.

Reach John F. Berry at 909-806-3058 or jberry@PE.com

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