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Teen gets 22 years for attempted murder
By Keren Rivas / Times-News
March 26, 2007 - 10:15PM

GRAHAM — A Burlington teen described by a prosecutor as a leader for the Sureños 13 street gang was sentenced to a minimum of 22 years in prison for his involvement in a 2005 attempted murder.

Rafael Jimenez Pacheco, 18, formerly of Loy Street, pleaded guilty Monday morning to attempted first-degree murder, robbery with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to kill inflicting serious injury, conspiracy to commit robbery with a deadly weapon, malicious assault in secret, and resisting an officer.

Jimenez-Pacheco was one of three teens who on Nov. 11, 2005, attacked Kenneth Dixon while he was driving his 1985 Cadillac on N.C. 49 North near Green Level.

Jason Boyd, a detective with the Alamance County Sheriff’s Department, testified during a sentencing hearing that at around 11:15 that night, Ashley Maria Anema, then 16 years old, flagged down Dixon and asked him to take her and her two friends, Jimenez-Pacheco and Miguel Matias, to a nearby mobile home park.

After they arrived at the address, the two boys started stabbing him. Dixon was stabbed close to 15 times in the back, neck and arms before he managed to get out of the car. One of the stabs punctured one of his lungs.

Boyd said the teens were planning to “finish him off” but they couldn’t find him and decided to make a run with the car, which Anema was driving. Detectives later found the car parked at an abandoned trailer in Seamster’s Mobile Home Park on N.C. 49.
Boyd said the teens were trying to get to Tulsa, Okla., to visit Anema’s aunt, who has also been identified as a gang member. He said the aunt told them that to be real gang members they had to stab or shoot somebody.

“Initially, they planned to rob people at ATMs with guns or knives. Then it escalated to robbing a car, and stabbing or killing the driver of the car,” Boyd said.
Anema and Jimenez-Pacheco managed to get on a bus to Oklahoma but were caught in Virginia and brought back to Alamance County.

Boyd said the three teens were all members of the Sureños 13 street gang, also known as Sur13 and Banditos. He said Jimenez-Pacheco, a.k.a. “Loco,” had a leadership position in the gang, which led investigators to believe he was the brains behind the assault.
Defense attorney Bob Craig said there was no evidence that showed his client played a bigger part in the crime than the other two co-defendants. He said it was Anema’s aunt who came up with the idea of robbing somebody and that his client simply followed along like the others.

Assistant District Attorney Lori Goins said that Jimenez-Pacheco not only was a leader of the gang but was also the oldest of the three. She asked the judge to give him the maximum sentence the law allowed.

“This crime was outrageous,” she said. “Mr. Dixon is lucky to be alive.”
After listening to both sides, Superior Court Judge R. Allen Baddour Jr. sentenced Jimenez-Pacheco to a total of 22 to 28 years in prison.

In September, a different judge sentenced 17-year-old Matias to 12 to 15 years in prison. Anema’s case is still pending.

Dixon, who decided not to take the stand, said he was pleased with the sentence. He said he would have liked for Matias to receive a sentence similar to the one Jimenez-Pacheco received.
Goins said the sentence was a statement to gang members in Alamance County that “we have no tolerance for gangs and what they do.”

For Jimenez-Pacheco’s mother, Guadalupe Jimenez, the sentence was an injustice. The mother of seven children said her son did not orchestrate the assault. She said he did what he did because he had been drinking and consuming drugs.

“I don’t agree with (the sentence),” Jimenez said. “I feel terrible.”
She added, “I’m 51 years old. When he gets out of jail, I might no longer be alive.”
She said she doesn’t understand why her youngest son got involved with the gang. She said he was a good kid who was trying to finish school. “His father and I were always telling him to stay in school and out of trouble,” she said.
Jimenez said she plans to appeal the decision.