Due to some technical issues, Thursday’s column was much shorter in print and online than I had originally written it. (In other words I wrote long and space was short). You probably notice in reading it that it’s pretty much a follow up to Sam Quinones excellent piece in yesterday’s LAT.
I’ve heard that Quinones attended every day of trial and was able to score some interviews that I couldn’t get. Most notably no one from the Azusa PD returned calls Wednesday to discuss Ralph Flores, Azusa 13 or the impact and aftermath of the spree of hate crimes that plagued Azusa between 1998 and 2004.
Complete column after the jump…
There are something like 80,000 gang members in Los Angeles
County.
They belong to 1,200 different street gangs.
Some of those gangs are well known, according to Gary Hearnsberger,head of the District Attorneys office Hardcore Gang Division.
Theres the Avenues, the East Coast Crips, the Rollin 20s, the Rollin 60s, he said, rattling off some of the better known gangs. “Then youve got gangs like Eight-Trey Hoovers, Pomona 12th Street, Puente Trece, Bassett and Azusa 13.
These are the gangs that have been around, he said. These are the ones whose names are on the tip of your tongue. Of all the gangsters in all the gangs, Hearnsberger said Azusa 13 member Ralph Swifty Steven Flores, 26, is without a doubt one of the most deadly he can recall. I think hes as evil as weve seen, Hearnsberger said.
On Tuesday, a jury in a downtown courtroom recommended that Superior Judge Kathleen Kennedy take Swifty off Azusas streets for good and give him permanent lodging on Death Row in San Quentin. The same jury convicted him of committing four murders between 1999 and 2004.
One of the killings targeted a 16-year-old Valinda boy, simply because he was black. Another snuffed out the life of a woman on the fringe of Azusa 13 who was believed to be a snitch. She wasnt.
Kennedy will consider the jurys recommendation at a hearing on April 2. I dont think that juries return death verdicts on people they couldnt characterize as evil, bad people, Hearnsberger said. These homicides are brutal and conscienceless.
At the murder trial and others that preceded it, Flores and members of Azusa 13 street gang were accused of participating in a reign of terror against innocent blacks. Among the crimes:
[BULLET]The May 19, 1999 slaying of Christopher Lynch, a black boy who attended a party in Azusa with a Latina girl. Prosecutors said Flores targeted Lynch because of his color.
[BULLET]In August 2000 Gejuan Salle, a black man, was slain outside an Azusa auto parts store, according to officials. Officials said Salle was targeted primarily because of his race. The killing remains
unsolved.
[BULLET]On Dec. 5, 2001, the homes of three black families on Pasadena Avenue, San Gabriel Avenue and North Fennimore Avenue were hit with firebombs. The violence highlighted a year of increasing brown-on-black crime in a city where blacks made up just under 4 percent of the total population.
[BULLET]In September 2002, Nadine Nowlin ,a black woman, was shot and severely outside an apartment building on Newburgh Street. Five associates of Flores were convicted in connection with the caper and a string of other violence targeting black residents.
[BULLET]In Nov. 2003, Claudia Chenet was shot and killed by Flores because he believed she was a police informant.
[BULLET]On Christmas Day 2004, Flores shot and killed West Covina resident Miguel Reyes outside a party. Reyes was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Flores laughed and smirked about the killing
afterward, prosecutors said.
The crimes led Azusa to take another look at itself. The City Council formed a human relations commission, and took to having a civic celebration for the birthday of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther
King. And, the city that prides itself as having everything from A to Z in might list safety under S.
Well since, several members of the gang have now been convicted, a core group responsible for the most violent crimes is off the streets and Flores is one of those guys, Hearnsberger said. And the change in Azusa has been fairly dramatic.
