Love Trial Update: Gang expert testifies about Love’s tattoos
William Sustaita, a gang investigator at the McLennan County Jail, testified that he has not interviewed Love, but he said by looking at Love’s tattoos, he likely is a member of a set belonging to the Bloods street gang.
Defense attorneys objected to Sustaita’s testimony outside the jury’s presence, however, Judge Ralph Strother ruled Sustaita can testify as a gang expert.
The numbers five and nine, a five-point crown and a five-point star are significant to the Bloods, Sustaita said.
The jury was shown photos of Love’s numerous tattoos, many of which Sustaita says are affiliated with the Bloods gang or a set of it.
Defense attorney Jon Evans said Love also has tattoos with the names of his wife, mother and sister, ones with nothing to do with gangs.
10:30 a.m.
Jurors heard from a Waco PD undercover officer about a 2007 traffic stop in which Love was found seated with a loaded SKS assault rifle on his lap and a black ski mask, pistol and AK-47 rifle elsewhere in the car. Four other men were in the car too. Love pleaded guilty to unlawfully carrying a weapon in as a result of the traffic stop.
Love later pleaded guilty to evading police in a vehicle during a 2008 traffic stop in which he briefly tried to flee with his wife and her two kids in the car. Officers found pain killers and marijuana residue in car. Love was placed on probation for four years.
McLennan County probation officer Monica Harper said Love always wore a piece of red clothing or red shoes and she documented that as a possible sign of being in a gang.
As part of Love’s probation he was required to write a life history. Prosecutor Hilary LaBorde read Love’s history to the jury. He said he was a good boy until the 5th grade, when he joined the Bloods street gang, she read.
Love attended Prairie View A&M University where he said he was “partying, fighting, smoking weed and robbing people.”
In 2007 Love had brain surgery to remove abscesses. He was told he couldn’t risk getting hurt in fights, so he started carrying a gun at all times, he wrote.
His friends told him if he couldn’t fight, then shoot somebody. He carried a gun everywhere, even in church, he wrote.
No Love family members have been in the courtroom during the trial, likely because many of them are under subpoena as potential witnesses and are therefore prohibited from being in court.
Previously
GEORGETOWN — Prosecutors will try to link Albert Leslie Love Jr. to gangs, drugs, shootings and robberies Wednesday morning as Love’s capital murder trial moves into the punishment phase.
A Williamson County jury took just an hour Tuesday morning to convict Love in the March 2011 shooting deaths of Tyus Sneed, 17, and Keenan Hubert, 20, at the Lakewood Villas apartment complex on Spring Street in Waco.
Love’s trial was moved to Georgetown because of publicity generated in Waco by the trial of his co-defendant, Rickey Cummings, who was sent to death row in 2012.
Love, 26, has a previous felony conviction for evading arrest. Prosecutors say they will show Love admitted to his probation officer through a diary that he was involved in robberies and shootings while a student at Prairie View A&M University.
Prosecutors also plan to show the jury photos of tattoos they say will link Love to the Bloods street gang.
Defense attorneys plan to present evidence to show Love underwent two brain surgeries for abscesses while he was at college in possible mitigation testimony.
http://www.wacotrib.com/news/courts_...3057f2274.html