Thread: Girlfriend and neighbor of slain football player Jamiel Shaw

Girlfriend and neighbor of slain football player Jamiel Shaw testify in L.A.

The preliminary hearing marks the first time prosecutors have publicly presented evidence in the murder case against a Latino gang member who authorities say gunned down Jamiel Shaw, 17, in March.
By Jack Leonard, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

1:35 PM PDT, June 18, 2008


Pedro Espinosa, 19, accused of gunning down Jamiel Shaw II, a 17-year-old high school student and star football player, appears in court in jail overalls Wednesday for a preliminary hearing. A projector image of Jamiel appears above him in the courtroom.

Two witnesses gave dramatic accounts this morning of how a standout high school football star was gunned down earlier this year near his Los Angeles home, opening a tense courtroom hearing packed with relatives of the victim and the alleged gunman.

Jamiel Shaw II, 17, was talking to his girlfriend on a cellphone when she overheard a voice ask him "Where are you from?" the teenage girl testified. There was no response and then the line went dead, she said.



Jamiel ShawA youth 'on track' until fatal gunfire
Another witness testified that she watched a lone, hooded gunman approach Jamiel on the street near his Arlington Heights home and fire a single shot. When Shaw fell, the gunman walked around him and delivered a final close-range shot to his head, she said.

"I saw the sparks from the gun," said a neighbor of Jamiel's who at one point broke down and cried on the witness stand. "I froze and was in total shock."

As the neighbor spoke, a large photo of a smiling Jamiel beamed down from a projector screen in the courtroom. His mother and father, wearing white T-shirts emblazoned with photos of their son, sat in the front row, occasionally dabbing at their eyes.

"It's hard," said his mother, Army Sgt. Anita Shaw, who was stationed in Iraq when she heard news of Jamiel's death. "It's like we're living it again."

The preliminary hearing in Los Angeles marks the first time prosecutors have presented evidence publicly in their murder case against Pedro Espinoza, a 19-year-old Latino gang member who authorities say was in the country illegally when he allegedly gunned down Jamiel.

The March 2 slaying rekindled a fierce debate over the role that race has played in recent violence against blacks and galvanized opposition to a controversial policy that limits when Los Angeles police officers can inquire about someone's citizenship status.

Espinoza's defense attorney attempted several times during the morning hearing to ask Jamiel's 14-year-old girlfriend whether Jamiel associated with gang members. But following objections from prosecutors, L.A. County Superior Court Judge Bob S. Bowers Jr. would not allow the girl to answer.

jack.leonard@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 7466.story

Court hearing under way in L.A. athlete murder case

By Thomas Watkins
ASSOCIATED PRESS

1:44 p.m. June 18, 2008

LOS ANGELES – A woman testified Wednesday that she saw a Hispanic man shoot her neighbor, a black teenager, in a slaying that has once more brought to the fore issues of race and immigration in a hugely diverse city.

Prosecution witness Tiffiney Johnson said she was in her yard in the Arlington Heights neighborhood of central Los Angeles on March 2 when she saw a man shoot 17-year-old Jamiel Shaw Jr., a high-school football star who police say was returning home from a trip to the mall with a friend.

“I saw the sparks from the gun,â€

A terrible tragedy.


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www.campaignforliberty.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjauAv6I-E8

Again and again and again, I just do not understand how our President and our congress can send our young men and women half way around the world in defense of the United States and refuse to defend our National Borders and Enforce our Immigration Laws while at the same time warning our military, for their own safety, not to wear their uniforms when traveling to "our" southern borders. Now our military can no longer leave their children at home in a "major United States city" and expect them to be safe or a least as safe as the parents in a "combat zone"!!

Again, as I commented on another article, "our" FAMILIES are at the mercy of ILLEGALS and their Anchor Babies being murdered, raped, infected with disease, or robbed. We can see the results of the ILLEGAL invasion in our courts every day! But NOT to worry the Chamber of Commerce will get their "cheap labor" increasing "their privatized" PROFITS, thanks to Bush and the Congressional Leadership!!

Hey Calderon, is it true that you said Mexcio's best are leaving Mexico? If this is your best, I pity your pathetic self and your pathetic country. Mexico will NEVER be what the U.S.A. is because of Mexico's inability to govern themselves, enforce their own laws and share the country's resources with it's own people. Why don't you and your pathetic government give it up and go back to Spain..but they probably wouldn't want you there either.

Damn you, George Bush! You are not of Presidential caliber and everything you have ever touched has tarnished. Your whole presidency has been a scam, a cloud of secrecy and your reign of power has been a tragedy to this country, I will be glad to see you go. Damn you! Good ridance to you and your pathetic administration.

GO ROCKFISH!!

Suspect In Jamiel Shaw Slaying To Stand Trial

POSTED: 4:14 pm PDT June 19, 2008
UPDATED: 5:45 pm PDT June 19, 2008


LOS ANGELES -- A 19-year-old reputed gang member was ordered Thursday to stand trial for allegedly killing 17-year-old standout Los Angeles High School football player Jamiel Shaw Jr.


Following a two-day hearing, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Bob Bowers Jr. said he found "sufficient cause" to require Pedro Espinoza to proceed to trial on a murder charge, along with a special circumstance gang allegation.

Espinoza -- who is jailed without bail -- is due back at the downtown courthouse for arraignment July 3. Prosecutors have not yet decided if they will seek the death penalty.

The hearing included testimony from two of Espinoza's cousins, who recanted their earlier statements that Espinoza had confessed to them because police were threatening them or their mother.

Pablo Espinoza testified that he told police his cousin had confessed to killing the football player on March 2, but he said today "that was a lie."

He contended that he fabricated his story because the police detectives questioning him threatened to arrest his mother and deport her.

"You were making it up?" Deputy Public Defender Jorge Guzman asked the prosecution witness.

"Yes," he responded.

Another prosecution witness, Javier Espinoza, said detectives "just kept pushing" him when he maintained that he didn't know anything about his cousin, Pedro, being involved in Shaw's killing.

He said he only told police that Pedro Espinoza had confessed to the killing was because "they were threatening me" and telling him that he was going to be booked for murder and would spend 20 years in prison.

Javier Espinoza said that his account was "all made up" and that the details he provided came from what he had heard at school from other students who believed Shaw was a gang member.

"It was just made up," he said about what he told police.

Los Angeles police Detective John Shafia, who was the prosecution's final witness, denied threatening either of the men with incarceration or the deportation of their mother.

Another prosecution witness, Juan Torres, who was a neighbor of the Shaws, testified that he has known Pedro Espinoza since high school and knows he is a gang member.

He said his father told him that a man named "Pedro" had stopped by to see him the night Shaw was killed, and that he later went at the behest of police to look for Espinoza.

He said he ran into Espinoza at a hot dog stand and Espinoza indicated he had been looking for him. Espinoza asked if something was going on in his neighborhood, and Torres said he responded that someone had died.

He testified that Espinoza, at one point in the conversation, uttered the initials "BK" -- which he understood to mean "Blood Killer."

"At some point, did the defendant, Pedro Espinoza, laugh?" Deputy District Attorney Bobby Grace asked.

"Yes," the witness responded. "He said, `BK all day. I'm going to wipe the Bloods out."'

Under cross-examination, Torres said Shaw hung out with Rollin' 20s gang members but repeatedly denied to him that he was in a gang.

Shaw -- who lived in an area claimed by Bloods gang members -- was shot to death about three houses away from his home. He was killed one day after Espinoza was released from county jail, where he had been serving time for assault with a deadly weapon, police said. Authorities believe Espinoza may be in the country illegally.

Under cross-examination by Espinoza's attorney, Los Angeles police Detective Mark Holguin testified that he had received information suggesting that Shaw belonged to a gang.

June 18: Witness To Shaw Shooting Testifies At Pre-Trial
April 9: Teen Pleads Not Guilty In Jamiel Shaw Jr. Homicide Case
March 11: Teammates, Family Mourn Teen Killed Near Arlington Heights Home

"It was never ever proven or substantiated," the police detective said.

He acknowledged that the victim's teenage girlfriend told another police officer that Shaw was a gang member.

Los Angeles police Officer Winston Lee testified that a red belt containing the symbol "20" -- which Shaw had been wearing the night he was shot to death -- was consistent with gang affiliation.

Lee also testified that he believed Espinoza was "a very active member of the 18th Street gang" who was willing to go into the territory of rivals.

Espinoza was arrested March 7 by officers from the Los Angeles Police Department's Wilshire Division and charged four days later with Shaw's murder -- just as Shaw's funeral service was about to begin.

Shaw's mother, Army Sgt. Anita Shaw, was serving in Iraq when her son was slain and has called for community action to stop gang violence.

http://www.knbc.com/news/16658669/detail.html

Everyone around and related to this scumbag Pedro Espinoza is suddenly playing the poor victim card, claiming they were threatened and coerced and recanting original statements.

ANY family member of this illegal gangbanger SHOULD be deported if they are in this country illegally, especially the parents!
Obviously,this is the mentality of these gangbangers and their families!

If this is the best mexico has to offer, we are in serious trouble!

Pedro Espinosa needs to receive the harshest sentence possible. His entire family needs to be jailed and deported too.

This is just one of the few revolting crimes that will be forever committed by illegal aliens from Mexico and other Latin American countries.

DEPORT ALL ILLEGAL ALIENS!

"Family Values that do not stop at the Border" characteristics that make ILLEGALS and their Anchor Babies so important to the United States per our Elitist Politicians including "our" President and the current two Major Party Candidates!