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Santa Cruz County: Victims determined to rebuild lives after Trabing Fire

Finding strength in disasterRobin Teague

talks about theday her family’s

home burneddown in the

Trabing Fire.

PATRICK TEHAN/MediaNews

B y   K E N   M C L A U G H L I NMediaNews

As autumn turns into winter,signs of rebirth in Larkin Valleyare everywhere.

Tough, verdant grasses are help-ing to heal scarred hillsides. Dovesand great horned owls are return-ing to their old haunts. And

members of the Teague family,known by their neighbors in thisgentle valley northwest ofWatsonville for their elaborateChristmas displays, have strungred, blue, orange and green lights.

But this Christmas, the lightsgrace a couple of old RVs parkedwhere the Teagues’ ranch-style

house stood before a raging wild-fire in June destroyed it along with25 other homes.

“Our lives were vaporized withinminutes,’’ said Tom Teague, anelectrical engineer whose familylost a pet cat and virtually

Please see Fires page A15

B y   J A M E S   G L A N Z   a n dT .   C H R I S T I A N   M I L L E RNew York Times News Service

BAGHDAD — Anunpublished, 513-page fed-eral history of the U.S.-ledreconstruction of Iraqdepicts an effort crippledbefore the invasion by Pen-tagon planners who werehostile to the idea ofrebuilding a foreign coun-try, and then molded into a$100 billion failure bybureaucratic turf wars, spi-raling violence and igno-rance of the basic elementsof Iraqi society and

infrastructure.‘‘Hard Lessons: The Iraq

Reconstruction Experi-ence,’’ the first officialaccount of its kind, is circu-lating in draft form here andin Washington among atight circle of technicalreviewers, policy expertsand senior officials. It con-cludes that when the recon-struction began to lag —particularly in the criticalarea of rebuilding the Iraqi

police and army — the Pen-tagon simply put outinflated measures ofprogress to cover upfailures.

In one passage, formerSecretary of State Colin L.Powell is quoted as sayingthat in the months after the2003 invasion, the DefenseDepartment ‘‘kept inventingnumbers of Iraqi securityforces — the numberwould jump 20,000 a week!‘We now have 80,000, wenow have 100,000, we now

Please see Iraq page A15

Paper cites bureaucratic turf wars, violence and ignorance

Official Iraq report findsreconstruction blunders

InsideSome U.S. troops will stay inIraq after June deadline. A15

HEISMAN WINNEROklahoma QB Sam Bradford chosen

Story on page C1

ALIEN ULTIMATUM“The Day the Earth Stood Still” is back

Story on page C16

Chance for showers andisolated thunderstorms.

WINDS: SW 5-15.

50Coast

53Inland

45Coast

37Inland

Q

WEATHER

Herald questionof the day

Is Australian actor Hugh Jackmana good choice to host the Oscars?

❏  Yes ❏  No

Go to: montereyherald.comto place your voteHerald surveys are unscientific

7 139918 00150Inside

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Sunday, December 14, 2008

www.montereyherald.com

LocalVolunteers helpclean up Seasidehome, B1

Today’sHighlights

L  O  C  A  L

For 50 straight years,Santa Claus has thrilledchildrenand adultsalike bytouchingdown inCarmelValley.

Local,page B1

N A T I O N

Storm-related powerfailures in the Northeastleave millions in the dark.

Page A6______________________

W O R L D

The gunman captured in theIndia attacks sheds light onthe three-day rampage.

Page A12______________________

S T A T E

The yearlong tree-sitdemonstration at UC-SantaCruz ends peacefully.

Page B6______________________

S P O R T S

Patrick Marleau’s two goalshelp the San Jose Sharksdefeat St. Louis, 5-4.

Page C1

______________________

L E I S U R E

It was a baby boom this yearfor many A-list celebrities,including Angelina Jolie andNicole Kidman.

Leisure C16______________________

B O O K S

JK Rowling’s latest book,“The Tales of Beedle theBard,” is a test of devotionfor “Harry Potter” fans.

Leisure C14______________________

U S A   W E E K E N D

Superstar Will Smith shareswhy he feels “greater than Icould ever imagine.”

USA Weekend cover story

RIPPLES

OF A

HOMICIDE How gang violence can affect

a family, a community and beyond

B y   V I R G I N I A   H E N N E S S E YHerald Salinas Bureau

It was an evening like so many others. Andres Alcala Jr.,always the host, gathered with friends at his parents’ houseto cheer for his beloved Los Angeles Lakers.

It was the third game of the Western Conference Cham-pionship series against the San Antonio Spurs. The Lakerslost. They would go on to win the series four days later, butAlcala wouldn’t see it. He wouldn’t return to his job at theMonterey Bay Aquarium. He wouldnever again throw his godson in theair or wrap his mother in a bear hug.

After the buzzer that night, he andhis buddies stepped into the frontyard and Alcala, 28, became Salinas’12th homicide victim of the year.Close friend Adrian Varela was alsoslain, becoming victim No. 13. Twoother people were wounded. All wereapparently mistaken for rival gangmembers by their attackers, thoughpolice say none of the victims isinvolved in gangs.

That was May 25. Salinas hassince tallied 11 more homicides, allof which are gang-related. The vio-lence and the numbers are numbingand easy to ignore on the Peninsula,where there hasn’t been a gang-related killing since 2002.

Every homicide creates a multi-tude of victims, and the slaying of“Junior” Alcala sent shockwaves from Salinas to PacificGrove and beyond. Two hundred people showed up for aprivate memorial service for employees and friends at theaquarium, where co-workers knew him by his birth name.

“Everybody absolutely loved Andres,” said KennethMaguire, one of Alcala’s supervisors. “He was larger than

Shockwaves ofAlcala shooting➤ The slaying ofAndres Alcala Jr.touched lives fromSalinas to Pacific Groveand beyond. Inside, wetell the stories of someof those affected bythe killing.

Please see Alcala page A8

SPECIAL TO THE HERALD

Photos from family and friends show that Andres Alcala Jr.touched many lives, (clockwise from top) as a loyal son,Monterey Bay Aquarium employee, close friend, volunteer,godfather and uncle, and general life of the party.

InsideEditorial: Wheninnocent people arevictims of gang-relatedcrime, it forces societyto pay attention. A14

A8 T H E   M O N T E R E Y   C O U N T Y   H E R A L D ,   S U N D A Y ,   D E C E M B E R   1 4 ,   2 0 0 8  W W W . M O N T E R E Y H E R A L D . C O M 

The Friend:Had been

naive aboutgangs

Katie McKendry wasraised in the relativelyprotective cocoon of

the Peninsula, and gang vio-lence was nothing shethought much about. Losingher best friend in a gangshooting changed that.

The 23-year-old hadn’teven heard of gangs untilshe graduated from CarmelHigh School.

“I never really understoodwhat it was,” she said. “I

don’t really (understand)now, but I’m learning.”

One of her last papers as asenior this year at Universityof California-Santa Cruz is a10-page study of the gangviolence that robbed her ofAndres Alcala Jr.

McKendry met Alcala in2004, when she startedworking at Monterey BayAquarium. She was a cash-ier. He was the burly secu-rity guard who escorted herwhen she turned in her till.They became fast friends.

His size, she said, beliedhis gentle, fun nature.

“Everyone loved to workwith him,” McKendry said.“He was a total goofball.”

Alcala loved his job. Once,

she said, he and friend Jef-frey Chambers dressed upas a sea turtle and a sea-horse to greet arriving digni-taries at Monterey Munici-pal Airport.

“The aquarium was likehis second family,” McKen-dry said.

She and Alcala dated for atime. While their romanticrelationship didn’t work out,they remained best friends.She frequently went dancingwith Alcala, his sister Mariaand niece Evelyn Torres. Hisfavorite hangout was theMucky Duck.

“Some of my fondestmemories have been withhim and his family,” shesaid.

McKendry learned of herfriend’s shooting when shearrived at work the nextmorning. She had changedher cell phone number andhis family couldn’t call her.

“I pretty much lost it,” shesaid.

She attended all of thefamily services and helpedorganize the private memo-rial service at the aquarium.

This month, McKendryleft the aquarium for a newjob at the SPCA of MontereyCounty.

“It feels like there wassomething missing,” shesaid of the job she loved. “Itjust wasn’t the same for me.”

— Virginia Hennessey DAVID ROYAL/Special to The Herald

KatieMcKendry,who datedAndres AlcalaJr., didn’tunderstandgang violencebefore itclaimed herfriend. She iswriting apaper aboutit for one ofher UC-SantaCruz classes.

As the chaplain for theSalinas Fire Depart-ment, Capt. Tony

Stagno knows the toll gangviolence has on those whoare called out to save lives.

“I don’t know how manyshootings we have had thisyear,” he said. “If you seethe same thing over andover again, it becomes thenorm even though it’s notthe norm.”

The toughest part of thejob, Stagno said, is to see alife end.

“If the person’s life is slip-ping away in front of you,sometimes it may flashthrough your mind that youare the last person that per-son may ever see. They arenot going to have a chanceto say goodbye to their par-ents, they are not going tohave a chance to say good-bye to their kids,” he said,pointing out how helpless hefeels in moments like those.“You are doing everythingyou can and really there isnothing else you can do.”

Stagno, who has servedalmost 13 years in the Sali-nas Fire Department, andhis crew, paramedics DylanBowman and John Bostwick,

were the first medicalresponders to arrive at theside of Andres Alcala Jr. andAdrian Varela the night theywere shot.

“We wish we’d never haveto go out on another call likethis,” Stagno said. “It justseems senseless. Sometimeswe can’t understand why thishappens.”

To help firefighters copewith on-the-job stress thatcan build from traumaticevents, the department isforming a Critical StressManagement Team. Theteam would allow firefightersto speak to their peers aboutthe events they experience,such as dealing with

shooting victims, Stagnosaid.

“When we look at it, (theteam) would be activatedalmost every week here inSalinas,” he said.

“To us it’s like this is whatSalinas is, and this is wherewe work and a part of ourlifestyle when we are here.”

Stagno said he thinksabout the night Alcala andVarela died.

“You still wonder if youdid everything possible andyou still wonder why did twokids have to die,” he said.“Those are sometimesanswers that we will neverget.” — Daniel Lopez

The Fireman:Being the

last face avictim sees

VERN FISHER/The Herald

Salinas Fire Capt. Tony Stagno was on the call the dayAndres Alcala Jr. and Adrian Varela were shot to death.

Andres Alcala Jr. wasgoing to cook his fami-ly’s Thanksgiving din-

ner this year. “Junior”wanted to roast the turkey,make the gravy, mash thepotatoes.

Instead, his family placedfresh flowers at a memorialstone in their front yard.They decorated the Christ-mas tree the next day as istheir tradition, but it wasn’tthe same.

Andres Alcala Sr. and hiswife, Francisca, lost two chil-dren to illnesses before theyimmigrated from Mexico.But nothing could preparethem for the pain of losingtheir youngest to a gangshooting.

His father’s favorite memo-ries are of the boy’s excitedreaction whenever he hit a

home run. His mother rel-ished his bear hugs and kiss-es, and the way he used tobaby her.

What do they miss themost now?

“Everything,” Franciscawhispers through tears.

“Love your children,” sheadvises other parents facingthe threat of gangs. “Takecare of them.”

The shooting has affectedeach member of the largefamily in different ways. On apractical level, oldest sister,Elia, has had to take overmuch of the caregiving thatJunior, who lived with hisparents, used to provide.Andres and Francisca are 70and 69, respectively, and donot drive. There are doctorsappointments and shoppingto be done.

Brother-in-law Joel Alex-ander — a CSU-MontereyBay graduate married to Jun-ior’s sister, Irma — plans totravel from Santa Rosa toMonterey County once a

month to meet with localcompanies and raise moneyfor the Andres Alcala Jr.Scholarship Fund at RanchoCielo.

On an emotional level,each has come to grips withtheir personal grief andworks to keep his memoryalive.

“It hurts a lot and it’s oneof those things that willnever go away,” said Junior’sbrother Juan, of Reno, Nev.

Maria, the closest in age toJunior, misses the text mes-sages telling her to “hurry upalready” when she was com-ing home from San Jose for aweekend visit.

She and Junior traveled toMexico together last year tomeet relatives for the firsttime. They promised toreturn this year, a promisethat cannot be kept.

“Next time I’ll know,” shesaid. “You never say, ‘We’lldo it next year,’ because younever know.” — Virginia Hennessey

ORVILLE MYERS/The Herald

The Alcala family gather on Nov. 28 to trim their Christmas tree. Maria Alcala, center, helpsher parents, Andres and Francisca Alcala, with a job her brother Andres Jr. used to do.

The Family:It is just not

the same

life.”He said Alcala spoke fre-

quently about gang violencein Salinas, saying he coun-seled young friends and rela-tives to stay clear of it.

“Just because you live inthe area doesn’t mean youcan’t get away from it,”Maguire said Alcala told him.

Alcala’s family hopes hisdeath will impress on thecounty the urgency of deal-ing with gang violence. Andthey plan to use his life toinspire local teens togreatness.

This month, the family willofficially christen the AndresAlcala Jr. Scholarship Fundat Rancho Cielo, a nonprofitgroup to help finance schooland extracurricular activitiesfor at-risk teenagers.

“We have to get in andwork for positive programs atan earlier stage,” said retiredJudge John Phillips, presi-dent of Rancho Cielo. “Whenthey get to prison, ourchance to turn them aroundis not great.”

The county must respondas one community, Phillipssaid, because the effects ofgang violence ripple from theloamy valley to the rockycoast. Millions of dollars arespent on law enforcement.Local industry loses valuableworkers.

More important, he said, isthe waste of human potential.

“These are all our kids,”Phillips said. “Whether youlive in Monterey or Salinas,any time you have a loss oflife — whether it’s into theprison system or it’s anactual death — these are allour kids. This is our country,this is our county, this is ourcommunity, and the lossimpacts — and shouldimpact — all of us eventhough maybe our kids aredoing well.”

Youngest in the family 

Alcala Jr. was the baby ofhis family, the last of 10 chil-dren born to Andres andFrancisca Alcala, Mexican

immigrants who came to theUnited States through thebracero exchange program.They raised their family on alivelihood gleaned from thefields of the Salinas Valley.

They have lived in thesame house on the east sideof Salinas for more than 30years. Although it isn’tuncommon to hear gunshots,the street where they live isfairly quiet, they say.

“I don’t know if we weresheltered, but to us it didn’tseem a bad place to be,” saidMaria Alcala of San Jose, whoat 33 is the youngest girl inthe family. “I have nothingbut good memories of grow-ing up there.”

The Alcalas filled their chil-dren’s lives with sports andfamily outings to keep themfrom the grip of gangs. If onechild was playing baseballSaturday afternoon, the fam-ily was there.

Like most of his brothersand sisters, Junior attendedSalinas High School, wherethe 6-foot-1, 280-pound pow-erhouse played football andgraduated in 1998. His sib-lings married and moved onto successful jobs, most outof the area, all having avoidedgangs. Junior remained athome, taking care of hisaging parents.

Junior, always the life ofthe party, reveled in hostinghis siblings and his manynieces and nephews at thefamily’s home. “Pajama partytonight?” he would say,which meant piling into thesmall living room for an over-night filled with movies andgood food.

He began working in theaquarium’s gift shop in 2000.Later, he worked as a secu-rity officer, a guest ambassa-dor welcoming visitors and,most recently, as a painter forthe tanks and exhibits.

Alcala was so admired atthe aquarium, Maguire said,he never had to interview foranother position, he just hadto apply. Each transfer, hesaid, was to get better hoursand higher pay so he couldtake care of his parents.

The last day 

That fateful Sunday, Junior

had family and friends com-ing over for the Lakers’game. Maria remembers herbrother was already prepar-ing carne asada when shearrived from San Jose atnoon.

After the game, the guysplayed pool, then steppedoutside to say goodbye. Itwas about 11:30 p.m. Accord-ing to testimony at a prelimi-nary hearing, the group wasstanding in a half-circle neara truck parked in the drive-way when three men in awhite Honda drove slowlyinto the cul-de-sac.

A witness remembers thedriver looking “weird” at thegroup. The car left the cul-de-sac. Moments later two Lat-ino men came running downthe road and attacked thegroup with the battle cry ofthe Norteño gangs.

“Norte,” one of the attack-ers yelled before theyopened fire. “Diemother------.”

Junior was the first victim,taken down with three orfour shots. The next gunmenshot Varela, then turned totwo other victims. One wasshot in the knee as he ran forthe garage. The other triedto take cover behind a truckon the street. When he madea break for a neighbor’sfence, bullets whizzed pasthis head and lodged in theneighbor’s house.

One witness, whose iden-tity is being protected,watched the attack from thetruck in the driveway, appar-ently unnoticed by the gun-men. When the shootingstopped, he told police, helooked up and saw the gun-men fleeing down the street.

One of the men thenstopped and returned,approaching Alcala as he laybleeding on the ground.

“Die you ------ scrap,” heyelled, using a derogatoryterm for a Sureño gang mem-ber. Then, the witness said,he emptied his gun intoAlcala.

Police arrive 

Maria was inside whenshe heard the shots. Therewas a party the next streetover, so she wasn’t overlyconcerned.

She was walking into theliving room when one of thebleeding victims ran into thehouse.

“He’s been shot,” hescreamed. “Call 911. Call911.”

Confused, she walked tothe front yard as she sum-moned help on the tele-phone. Then she saw herbrother’s unmistakable bodyon the ground.

“You need to hurry,” shetold dispatchers. “You needto hurry.”

She looked at Junior, couldsee he was breathing. Policeand paramedics arrived. Sherushed inside to call her sib-lings. Neighbors who hadcome to her parents’ sideasked her to go outside andask why Junior hadn’t beentaken away by ambulancelike the other victims.

“He didn’t make it,” wasthe officer’s reply. “I’msorry.”

Chase and arrests 

Officer Reynaldo Peña waspatrolling downtown at 11:44p.m. when he heard the calland a description of the sus-pect vehicle. Racing towardthe scene from about a mileand a half away, he spotted awhite Honda heading in theopposite direction on FrontStreet.

The Honda made a high-speed left turn onto East SanLuis Street. Peña made a U-turn and pursued. The Hondastopped and one occupantfled, carrying a bundle underhis arm. Roman Gasca andDaniel Aragon, both 19, weretaken into custody.

The eyewitness wasbrought to the scene andidentified both men. Amongthe evidence found in the carwas a black PittsburghPirates cap, with a distinctivebright yellow P that wit-nesses had described fromthe shooting. Police found acell phone containing textmessages from someonekeeping track of law enforce-ment locations.

Gasca, Aragon and hisyounger brother, SamuelAragon, were charged withgang-related murder. Prose-cutors say Samuel Aragonsent the text messages as hesat at home with a policescanner. The man who alleg-edly ran from the car wasnever found, nor were theguns.

All of the suspects havedenied the charges and areawaiting trial. Only Gasca hasa prior record in MontereyCounty Superior Court, a rel-atively minor case of resistingarrest. Their attorneys sayevidence linking them togangs is tenuous.

Focusing on the good 

Maria Alcala wants justice,but she focuses mostintensely on the good thingsthat may come out of herbrother’s death. It is what hewould have wanted.

“I can’t waste my energybeing angry at them,” shesaid. “Right now my focus is. . . helping other kids whofeel trapped, who are feelingthat going with the gangs isthe only life they have, thatthe streets are the only wayto make it.”

She is hopeful about whatthe scholarship fund canachieve. Distributed throughRancho Cielo, the fund willprovide scholarships foryoung people to pursue art,music and other educationalopportunities.

Maria wants the scholar-ships to say to those youths,“There is still hope. You canstill do something positivewith your life.”

The family plans to awardthe first scholarship duringthe Aquarium’s Dia del Niño,Day of the Child, on April 26.

The aquarium and itsemployees will make one ofthe first large donations inJunior Alcala’s memory. Theaquarium has raised $6,000to start the fund, said TeresaMerry, the facility’s vice pres-ident of human resources.

Maria and other familymembers expressed grati-tude for the support they’vereceived from Junior’semployers and Rancho Cielo.She said she hopes the restof the county will respond inkind. Their immediate goal isto raise $25,000, with thehope of creating anendowment.

“We need change,” saidMaria. “If you change oneperson’s life, you changemany people’s lives. Ourlives would be different ifsomeone had” intervened inthe lives of Junior’s killers.

Gang violence “doesn’taffect just Salinas,” she said.“A lot of people in Montereylost a great friend.”

Virginia Hennessey can be

reached at 753-6751 or

vhennessey@montereyherald

.com.

AlcalaFrom page A1

R  I  P  P  L  E  S     O  F     A     H  O  M  I  C  I  D  E

n the Webn the Webmontereyherald.com

To learn more about Andres AlcalaJr. or to donate to the memorialscholarship in his name, go towww.andresalcalajr.com.

SPECIAL TO THE HERALD

Andres Alcala Jr., right, stayed home to help take care of hisfather, left, and mother.

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W W W . M O N T E R E Y H E R A L D . C O M  T H E   M O N T E R E Y   C O U N T Y   H E R A L D ,   S U N D A Y ,   D E C E M B E R   1 4 ,   2 0 0 8  A9

When a homicide hap-pens in Salinas,Cmdr. Kelly McMillin

gets the call.This year there have been

a record-tying 24 slayings, ofwhich all but one was gang-related, he said.

“If we didn’t have gangs,we are dealing with onehomicide this year,” saidMcMillin, who oversees thepolice department’s investi-gations division. “For a cityof our size, that’s truly a cityat peace.”

McMillin, as he has somany times this year, wascalled when Andres AlcalaJr. and Adrian Varela weregunned down in Alcala’syard May 25.

When investigating,McMillin said, one of thetoughest things to deal withis family members and wit-nesses, who are kept away

from the victims.“Our responsibility is to

seek justice for the victim,and that means for us to pre-serve crime scenes, to makesure we do a meticulousinvestigation. And some-times that means keepingfamily at distance at a timewhen emotions are just run-ning through the roof,”McMillin said.

So while they are doingtheir job during what is aheartbreaking event for fam-ily and friends, the police cancome across as uncaring.McMillin says the reality isjust the opposite, but officersmust rise above theirfeelings.

“People sometimes havethe wrong impression thatpolice officers, particularlypeople that deal with homi-cides and the like, becomethese emotionless, hardened,soulless people and that sim-ply isn’t the case,” he said.“We, probably more thanmost people, learn how tocontrol those emotions andkeep those emotions in oneplace while the professionalis . . . doing his or her job.”

When he leaves the sceneof a killing, he is often think-ing, “What if that was myfamily member?” McMillinsaid. Then he finds comfortin knowing the people hecares about are safe.

“It makes you very thank-ful for what you have,” hesaid. “That’s what I’ve alwaystaken away when I comehome.” — Daniel Lopez

The Officer:Putting asideemotions todo the job

ORVILLE MYERS/The Herald

Salinas police Cmdr. KellyMcMillin says officers mustcontain their emotions whendealing with a homicide.

SPECIAL TO THE HERALD

For Chico Alexander, therewas no one quite like hisgodfather, Junior Alcala.

He taught him how todance like Justin Tim-berlake. He shared his

cherished model cars, lethim win at wrestling andtook him to the aquarium tosee the hammerhead sharks.

For 5-year-old Chico Alex-ander, there was no onequite like his “tio,” his godfa-ther, Junior Alcala.

“Yes, I am sad,” the kin-dergartner said, addingmatter-of-factly that his unclewas shot in the heart. “Hewas a really good guy. He isreally nice.”

Andres Alcala Jr. was “TioJunior” to 13 nieces andnephews, ranging in agefrom 18 months to 26 years.

“All of the kids adoredhim,” said Chico’s father,Joel Alexander.

An imposing figure, Juniorwas sentimental when it

came to family, Alexandersaid, often crying at familyweddings.

Junior was the enforcerfor the family’s children. Hisbrother Juan worries how heand his surviving brothers,all of whom live in Nevada,will help guide them now.

“Junior was the one whokept the youngsters out oftrouble, out of drugs,” Juansaid. “All the kids used torun to him, not to me andmy other brother, just tohim.”

Evelyn Torres, 26, wasjust two years younger thanher uncle and lived with himin the family home. Junior,she said, was more like herbrother and best friend, allrolled into one big teddybear.

She remains at her grand-parents’ home, helping tocare for them.

“A lot has changed,” shesaid crying. “It’s very quiet.Nothing’s the same.”

— Virginia Hennessey

The Godson:Lost his role

model

Local defense attorneyshave expressed growingconcern that gang vio-

lence has become so routinethat those not immediatelyaffected by its impact havebecome desensitized — orsimply fed up — and theyfear their clients may not begetting fair trials.

Some say prosecutors aretoo quick to charge ganginvolvement in every case.Others have been alarmed atdeclarations by prospectivejurors who say they will con-vict anyone accused of agang crime.

“Any time there’s a fear of

a group, it adversely impactsan individual’s ability to get afair trial from unbiasedjurors,” said Public DefenderJim Egar. “Prejudice isunfortunately a natural partof the human psyche and,when it is coupled with fear,it can interfere with rea-soned judgment.”

Lawyers for the threeteens charged in the slay-ings of Andres Alcala Jr. andAdrian Varela declined inter-views for this report.

Roman Gasca, 19, DanielAragon, 19, and Samuel Ara-gon, 18, all are facing poten-tial life sentences if con-victed of multiple counts ofmurder and attempted mur-der with weapons and gangenhancements.

They have denied thecharges. At their preliminaryhearings defense attorneys

Erin Wennerholm, MaryConn and Rick Westattacked the strength of thegang evidence and the use of“in field” eyewitness identifi-cation by Salinas policeofficers.

The advent of DNA testing— which has proven thatsome convicts are factuallyinnocent — has shown therelative weakness of eyewit-ness identifications. Thoseidentifications are even morequestionable, experts say,when the witnesses arebrought to the scene of anarrest where the suspectsare in custody, as was thecase in the arrest of Gascaand Daniel Aragon.

The trio has challengedthe sufficiency of the evi-dence presented at their pre-liminary hearing. Thatmotion will be heard Jan. 16. — Virginia Hennessey

Defenseattorneys:

Working fora fair trial

For Jeffrey Chambers,who grew up on thefringes of gang violence

in Seaside, he never imag-ined co-worker and friendAndres Alcala Jr. wouldbecome a victim.

“He was the first person Imet when I came toMonterey Bay Aquarium formy interview,” said Cham-bers, an education specialistfor the aquarium. “He wasone of the people that inter-viewed me. And from theminute I walked in the doorwe just started, it was like . . .it was like love at first sight.We were two bug guys, kindof goofy.”

Chambers said that, whilegrowing up on the Peninsulawhere he played football forSeaside High School, he wasaware of gang problemsbefore the shooting, and wason the fringes of gang activi-ties when he was younger.

“It was mostly fists (then),and the difference nowadaysis you got these automaticand semi-automatic guns out

here. You got young kidsrunning around with guns. . . so it’s a different time. . . .

“His family, everybodythat knew him knew hewasn’t associated withgangs, knew he didn’t have apart in gangs. But the thingabout Andres is that heloved everybody. . . . Every-body felt comfortable atAndres’ house.”

Grief, Chambers foundout, does not go into that

good night without a fight.“I deal with my grief every

day I come to work,” Cham-bers said. “The one thingAndres would want every-one to do is just to try to findwhat we can do to help thekids, the youths out there inSalinas. And to live our lifeand just be happy . . . hewouldn’t want us to grievefor him. He would want us tohelp. . . . I know I’m trying tofigure out what can I do.” — Andy Stiny

TheCo-worker:

Knew gangs,but not the

violence

DAVID ROYAL/Special to The Herald

JeffreyChamberssays he hasto deal withthe grief oflosing AndresAlcala Jr.every time hegoes to workat theaquarium.

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