Thread: Latino Gang Accused of Conspiring to Kill Blacks

http://www.latimes.com

Gang Accused of Conspiring to Kill Blacks
Federal prosecutors allege that members of the Avenues in L.A. plotted to commit violence against African Americans.
By John Spano
Times Staff Writer

July 4, 2006

Jose Cruz is a walking testament to what happens when a member turns against the Avenues street gang.

He has 30 scars from the stab wounds he suffered in one attempt on his life — on his arms, torso and legs. In another attack, he was beaten so severely that he has a visible dent in his skull, according to court papers, "the size and shape of a pistol butt."

His street gang goes back five generations in Highland Park, which for Cruz is five miles and several lifetimes from the downtown courtroom where he is scheduled to testify as the star witness for the prosecution in the trial of a group of childhood friends.

Federal prosecutors, who launched their case last week, contend that the Avenues gang between 1994 and 2000 conspired to kill African Americans on their turf.

Men, women and children were harassed, terrorized, assaulted and slain as gang members sought to force black residents out of Latino neighborhoods, prosecutors said.

Authorities are using a federal hate-crime law based on the amendment to the U.S. Constitution that outlawed slavery, and another law created in the civil rights era, to go after four gang members. Barbara Bernstein, deputy chief of the criminal section of the civil rights divisions of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, is part of the prosecution team.

Attorneys for the defendants — Gilbert Saldana, Alejandro Martinez, Fernando Cazares and Porfirio Avila — have asserted that the federal government has no power to involve itself in a common street crime.

Defense attorney Reuven L. Cohen told jurors last week that one of the slayings cited in the charges — the 1999 shooting of Kenneth Wilson — was not a hate crime but "a simple gang killing committed out of boredom."

Cohen said the crimes sprang from the "sad" truth of "a tension that exists between African American gangs and Latino gangs."

The first of three former gang members, each in custody and hoping for leniency, testified Monday. Jesse Diaz, who described himself as a tagger from age 12, told jurors the Avenues decided to fight the "infestation" of blacks in Highland Park with a systematic terror campaign designed to run them out of the neighborhood.

Diaz, who has 10 more years to serve in prison for attempted murder, said the Avenues hated all rival gangs. But the antipathy for blacks was different, he said.

Highland Park became the scene of a game in which Diaz's group of Avenues actually competed with another "clique" to run the most blacks out of Highland Park, he testified.

Two other informants, one serving a long state prison term and the other a deported immigrant, will tell jurors that Saldana shot Wilson repeatedly in 1999, explaining that Saldana had just acquired a gun and "wanted to test it out."

One told the FBI in interviews that the gang got an order in 1998 from the Mexican Mafia prison gang to "kill any blacks … on sight."

Rick Ortiz, a Los Angeles police spokesman, called the Avenues a "bully" gang that uses its large numbers to intimidate.

"The Avenues have been around for a long time," Ortiz said. "They are the largest gang in the northeast area, with over 500 documented, active members."

Although gang members have for years been subject to a court order that limits their activities, they remain active, authorities said. Their racial antipathy is an outgrowth of prison culture, in which rival street gang members band together by race and then bring those attitudes back to the streets, Ortiz said.

"When you have gang members standing out on the street corners, they intimidate people," he said. "They may commit a minor offense, like vandalism, but people are so afraid of them they won't call in. It diminishes the quality of life in the community."

Heinrich Keifer, president of the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council, said racial violence by gang members is not currently a problem in the area.

"Our biggest problem is not so much gangs, although some members of the community are intimidated. It's more the taggers," Keifer said. "They create that feeling that the community is destroyed. The gangs aren't ruling the turf. They're not necessarily muscling people out. There was some of that in the past.

"The area is on the rebound, so much so that many Westsiders are moving in," Keifer said, citing the historic heritage of the area northeast of downtown. "Many of the poorer people are struggling with the rising rents."

As part of his strategy in the case, defense attorney Cohen plans to target the witnesses' credibility.

Diaz and the two other former gang members are lying to curry favor with prosecutors, Cohen said. Defendants Saldana and Avila are in prison, serving life sentences without the possibility of parole for murder. Cazares is in custody on a parole violation. Martinez's custody status could not be determined.

Prosecutors say the gang members conspired in various acts of violence, including:

• Wilson's 1999 killing, which occurred when he returned to his Avenue 52 home late at night after a party, his nephew, Duane Williams, testified Thursday. Wilson was shot repeatedly by Saldana and two others because of his race, Assistant U.S. Atty. Alex Bustamante told jurors.

• Diaz testified that gang members beat a black homeless man with metal weapons, and attacked an African American man speaking on a pay telephone from behind and severely beat him.

Another black man was assaulted on the street because he was walking with a Latina, according to Bustamante.

• Finally, authorities say they have linked the killings of two other men to the Avenues, partly through ballistics. The victims were Christopher Bauser, who was shot execution-style at a bus stop in 2000, and Anthony Prudomme, also killed on a street.

Bustamante offered a chilling view of the mentality of the Avenues as the trial opened in U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson's courtroom. Martinez was driving a van carrying five fellow Avenues members when he spotted Wilson.

"Anybody want to kill a "edited?" Bustamante said.

"Those are not my words, ladies and gentlemen," Bustamante added, gesturing across the room to Martinez. "They are his."

Defense attorney Reuven L. Cohen told jurors last week that one of the slayings cited in the charges — the 1999 shooting of Kenneth Wilson — was not a hate crime but "a simple gang killing committed out of boredom."

Nothing better to do? This is really developing into a complicated mess. Sounds like horrible race crimes to me. But it's one little part they left out of the defination of this thing. Whites are not the only racists and aren't the only ones commiting race crimes. Where they got the idea that it's not racist if that race isn't the majority is a crock. If anyone does something to purposly hurt a person for no reason except the color of their skin....is a race crime and I don't care what color you are on either end and if your number is the majority or not.

Folks, we've had a lot of shootings in this one area...including innocents....
I believe that the below quote is partially why, even though we have a 'TIPS' line, where callers can remain anonymous.

but people are so afraid of them they won't call in. It diminishes the quality of life in the community

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald...s/14950270.htm

LIBERTY CITY
Bullet kills girl, 9, playing in yard
A bullet from a high-powered weapon hit and killed a 9-year-old Liberty City girl while she played with a doll Saturday in front of her home.
BY NICHOLAS SPANGLER, ELIAS LOPEZ AND KATHLEEN MCGRORY
nspangler@MiamiHerald.com

FOR THE MIAMI HERALD
AT SCHOOL: Sherdavia Jenkins had a bright future ahead of her, but a stray bullet ended it.
More photos
Sherdavia Jenkins was playing in the dirt, digging a grave for her doll, Polly, on Saturday afternoon. Her little sister and her best friend didn't want to play that game, so they were talking on the stoop, a few feet behind her.

Then came at least two dozen bullets from a high-powered weapon. It was about 3 p.m.

Sherdavia, barely 9, was hit once in the neck. She tried to crawl into her home. Her mother ran out the open door, picked her up, carried her into the living room and called 911. Her baby died in her arms. The two other girls, who weren't harmed, became murder witnesses.

Police arrived and put up yellow tape around Northwest 13th Avenue, between 67th and 65th streets. The neighborhood is home to a housing project known to residents as the Pork 'n Beans Projects, to others as Liberty Square.

Police put cones around shell casings and talked to Sherdavia's screaming aunt, her grandmother, her cousins crying quietly around the corner.

Miami police spokesman Delrish Moss said detectives had few facts: One man shot at another man about 50 yards from the girls, and a stray bullet ended Sherdavia's life.

''We're still trying to determine a motive,'' Moss told neighborhood.

Then his voice got loud: ``We've got two people [witnesses] down at headquarters talking to us. That place should be full. If this kid can't sit on the porch on a Saturday afternoon, then nobody can.''

The deadly shooting at 1252 NW 65 Terr. comes at a time when the number of murders -- especially among younger victims -- has risen dramatically in Miami-Dade County. In the past 12 months alone, at least 18 people -- ranging from age 2 to 18 -- have been murdered throughout the county. Thirteen were black; five were Hispanic. Most came from neighborhoods in Northwest Miami-Dade.
Those numbers meant little to Sherdavia's family.

GIFTED STUDENT

Her grandmother, Shirley Williams, remembers a little girl who had the highest score on the math FCAT in her third-grade class at Lillie C. Evans Elementary School. By May, Sherdavia had collected 14 awards for good grades in Spanish, math and music. She was the family chess champion.

Family members said she was supposed to transfer to a school for gifted students at the beginning of the next school year.

The neighbors knew none of this. They remembered a little girl they called Shay who liked to draw pictures for her friends, who wore her hair in pigtails tied with bright, shiny bows. Very few of them knew her name, who her family was or where she had lived.

But everybody heard the shots.

''About 10, real fast,'' recalled Laverne Smith, 47, who mentioned that there had been another shooting just the night before and pointed to where one of the bullets had hit.

She's used to the sound of gunfire. ''I just tell my kids to lay down on the floor, duck,'' she said.

Chiquita Walker, 35, grew up in these projects. ''It's mainly at night, when they shoot,'' she said. ``It was OK when I was growing up. Now -- I'm ready to move, that's for sure.''

Sherdavia's 14-year-old neighbor heard the shots that killed her. ''BOOM, BOOM!'' he said. ``I thought it was fireworks, at first. But it was too powerful. My little brother was on the porch so I ran for him and brought him in. We got on the floor. It went on for maybe two minutes.''

The boy, whose name is being withheld by The Miami Herald, said he didn't know what might have motivated the shooting. ``I don't know and I don't want to know. We want to move anyway. This'll just make us move faster.''

Sherdavia's best friend, a 10-year-old girl whose name also is being withheld, was sitting on the sidewalk, next to the police tape. They had been next-door neighbors.

''I came here a year ago,'' she said. 'When I came, like a day after, she said `hi.' We started talking about what is our favorite stuff. My favorite is spaghetti. I like math best; she likes art. We would play hide-and-seek, makeup and stuff like that. Sometimes we would play Connect Four.''

On Saturday, the girls were sitting outside Sherdavia's apartment home.

''She was out on the grass, and I was talking with her little sister, and then there were gunshots and all this smoke. Then she was trying to go into her house but she fell. I saw her by the door. She fell by the door and blood was all over. She had one eye open and the other closed and she was trying to breathe,'' she said.

Sherdavia's friend said she didn't want to live in Pork 'n Beans anymore, mainly because of the shootings.

``They [are] always doing that. They did it last year, and they [are] doing it again. I want to move somewhere else, where they don't shoot and stuff. By where the white people live.''

SHE COULDN'T CRY

She hadn't cried all day. ''I was about to, before. I was trying, too, but I couldn't,'' she said.

But Sherdavia's aunt, Lija Williams, 30, hadn't stopped. She was crying so hard it made her choke.

Sherdavia's father, David Jenkins, 33, a father of five and a security guard, spoke to reporters at Miami police headquarters late Saturday night.

''Why? I only want to know why,'' he said. ``Why would you shoot an innocent child and keep going? . . . I feel very hurt. Like somebody cut through my stomach and started tap-dancing. All I have left is pictures of my daughter.''

Police urge anyone with information about the shooting to call 305-471-TIPS.

Miami Herald staff writers Susannah Nesmith, David Ovalle and Laura Morales contributed to this story.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald...s/14962026.htm

LIBERTY CITY
Vigil cry: Help us find who killed girl
As dozens joined efforts to seek information about a 9-year-old girl's death, detectives released a description of a man possibly involved in the shooting.
BY DAVID OVALLE AND ANDREA ROBINSON
dovalle@MiamiHerald.com

DAVID ADAME / FOR THE MIAMI HERALD
GRIEVING PARENTS: Sherrone and David Jenkins hold each other Monday. People gave out fliers demanding information on whoever killed the Jenkinses' daughter, 9-year-old Sherdavia.
While community leaders pleaded for tips that could solve the killing of 9-year-old Sherdavia Jenkins, homicide detectives late Monday gave a detailed description of a man they believe was involved in the gunfight.

He is known by the street name Yellow Man.

He was last seen wearing a white polo, long blue jean shorts, a green-and-red hat and two-toned tennis shoes -- one of the colors is red, police said late Monday.

The man sports waist-length dreadlocks. His name is not certain, but he may have an injured shoulder.

The information came just hours after politicians, activists and bereaved family members gathered for a candlelight vigil in the darkness of the Liberty City housing project known to many as Pork 'n' Beans.

Sherdavia was shot in the neck as she played with her doll, Polly, on her porch on Saturday afternoon, her death sparking outrage in a county already reeling from a rash of murders, including the shooting death of an 18-month-old in May. Police believe Sherdavia was an unintended target in a gunfight.

On Monday, the afternoon began with U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek leading a couple hundred people, knocking on doors and distributing fliers demanding for information to help solve the case.

''It's unacceptable for this type of act to take place and go unpunished,'' Meek said.

With him was David Jenkins, the little girl's father, who pleaded with his neighbors to turn in the killer or killers.

''If you know something please come forward. Take back your community before it's gone too far,'' Jenkins said, steps away from the spot where his daughter fell dead. His wife, Sherrone, stood silently nearby, under the careful watch of her mother, Shirley Williams.

Jenkins announced he was creating an organization called Families Against Senseless Shootings to call attention to the problem plaguing the community.

Later, political leaders and ministers announced a $5,000 reward for information leading to arrests in the killing.

Monday's show of support was designed to send a message, said Meek, a former Florida Highway Patrol trooper.

During his days in the state Legislature in the late 1990s, Meek occasionally led canvassing efforts to protest violence and decrepit housing conditions in the neighborhood.

Dozens of volunteers -- a teacher from Sherdavia's elementary school, police officers, civic leaders, union and church members -- fanned the length and width of the Liberty Square project and passed out fliers bearing the image of the smiling girl. At each stop, they asked neighbors to call Crime Stoppers.

Among the volunteers was Debbie Page, aunt of teenager Evan Page, a Carol City High School senior who was shot to death in November.

''I'm here in honor of all the children,'' Page said. With her was her daughter, Octavia Anton, 15.

After the neighborhood walk-through, about 50 residents returned to the Jenkins' home with Sherdavia's relatives, neighborhood pastors and elected officials.

The pastors had ideas: Put a gate around the project, install security cameras. But Nora Perry, 25, seemed disillusioned.

''They told us we were going to have that a year ago,'' she said. ''This will last for two weeks. After that, once she is buried, it's out of sight, out of mind.''

Monday evening, activists held a candlelight vigil for the slain girl at the Liberty Square Community Center, 6304 NW 14th Ave.

Funeral services for Sherdavia will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at New Mount Moriah Baptist Church, 6700 NW 14th Ave., in Liberty City. Hall Ferguson Hewitt Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.

Miami Police Chief John Timoney said he was certain the killer would be caught.

''To do this in broad daylight with kids . . . around the play area is incredible. This did not happen in a vacuum,'' Timoney said. ''We want to catch this person sooner rather than later. God forbid someone else gets shot.''

Despite the fresh community outcry, press conferences and emotional vigils, tips were initially slow to pour in, authorities said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Miami homicide detectives at 305-579-6530 or Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.

In a year already marked by so many caught-in-the-crossfire deaths, keeping Sherdavia's killing in the public eye is key to solving the case, said Detective Delrish Moss, a department spokesman. So it began again, the tug of war between releasing enough tidbits of information to keep the story alive and holding back enough to not show the perpetrators what detectives know.

''That's always a challenge -- how much info you can give to keep the story alive, as opposed to information that is going to be harmful to the case,'' Moss said. ''It's a delicate dance.''

Miami Herald staff writers Evan S. Benn and Nicholas Spangler contributed to this report. ************************************************** ***************

The 18 month old was inside her house, holding onto a sofa, when a stray bullet came through the window.

Sure everybody is scared. I don't know anyone in a gang from any color..but I know they fear the backlash and that it would be innocent victims. It's no one on one issue. It's to the death with guns and it's something I don't ever want to experience. It's hard to buy the stray bullet deal either when it's a 7 yr. old getting ready to blow out her b-day candles in her house with family all around. (happened in Chicago). It's sad when children can't be safe in their homes either.

Tragic, sickening, revolting!

And erriely strange that the little girl was reportedly digging a grave for her doll.

Another senseless shooting of an innocent woman enjoying a burger with her husband at a drive-in in Dallas.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... c6457.html

4 arrested in woman's death
02:58 PM CDT on Tuesday, July 4, 2006
From Staff Reports

Three men and a woman have been arrested in the death of a woman following a robbery outside a Fair Park-area restaurant, police said Tuesday.

Teresa Sandoval, 27, was shot while sitting in a car with her husband around 1:30 a.m. Monday in the parking lot of Joe's Burgers in the 600 block of R.L. Thornton Freeway. Police said a man pulled up in an SUV and demanded money, then fired a shot and struck Sandoval, who died later at Baylor University Medical Center.

Police said they arrested Jose Terron and Oscar Martinez, both 25, Gerardo Barron, 21, and 18-year-old Janet Quiroz in connection with Sandoval's death.

All four are charged with capital murder and are being held at Lew Sterrett Justice Center. Police identified Mr. Terron as the gunman, and said his bail was set at $1 million. The other three were being held in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Officers also recovered a gun used in the murder and $2,200 in cash.

Police said the arrests were the result of efforts from the robbery and homicide detectives on the case. They said all four may be tied to a string of robberies in the Dallas area, but did not release any further details.