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Thread: Emilio Manuel Avalos - California

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    Emilio Manuel Avalos - California




    Man accused of killing a Marine in Desert Hot Springs to be tried on Dec 5


    A Dec. 5 trial date was set today for a reputed gang member accused in the death of a Marine in Desert Hot Springs almost 10 years ago.

    Emilio Manuel Avalos, 34, is charged with first-degree murder for the Dec. 19, 2001, death of Marine Cpl. Henry Lozano. Prosecutors said he shot Lozano, 20, in the head twice because he was dating a woman who had been Avalos' girlfriend.

    Avalos, who is being held without bail at the county jail in Indio, was arrested in 2006 and faces the death penalty if convicted.

    Prosecutors have said the investigation into Lozano's death triggered Operation Falling Sun, which resulted in the arrest of more than 120 gang members and parolees beginning in March 2009.

    Then Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco said Lozano's mother brought the case to his attention in 2008, which prompted him to launch an eight-month-long investigation into gangs in Desert Hot Springs. The raid was followed up by an injunction against the West Drive Locos and True Crime Boys gangs.

    http://www.mydesert.com/article/2011...yssey=nav|head

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    Trial date set for suspect in DHS Marine killing

    An April 9 trial date was set today for a reputed gang member accused of killing a Marine in Desert Hot Springs more than a decade ago.

    Emilio Manuel Avalos, 34, is charged with murder in the Dec. 19, 2001, death of Marine Cpl. Henry Lozano. Prosecutors allege he fired two gunshots into the head of the 20-year-old Lozano because the victim was dating Avalos' ex-girlfriend.

    Avalos also is charged with murder and attempted murder in the Dec. 21, 1994, shootings that killed Jahi Collins and wounded Bobby Wilson while they sat in a car with two girls in the parking lot of a Desert Hot Springs park. Witnesses said Avalos and an accomplice targeted Collins because he was black. The alleged accomplice, Sergio Padilla, is still being sought by authorities.

    Avalos was arrested in 2006 in connection with the Lozano killing and could face the death penalty if convicted. He is being held without bail at the county jail in Indio,

    Prosecutors have said the investigation into Lozano's death triggered Operation Falling Sun, which resulted in the arrest of more than 120 gang members and parolees, beginning in March 2009.

    Then-Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco said Lozano's mother brought the case to his attention in 2008, which prompted him to launch an eight-month-long investigation into gangs in Desert Hot Springs. The raid was followed up by an injunction against the West Drive Locos and True Crime Boys gangs.

    http://www.mydesert.com/article/2012...text|Frontpage

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    Trial getting under way in Desert Hot Springs 2001 Marine killing

    Opening statements are scheduled this afternoon in the trial of a reputed gang member accused of killing a U.S. Marine in Desert Hot Springs more than a decade ago.

    Emilio Manuel Avalos, 35, could face the death penalty in the Dec. 19, 2001, slaying of Marine Cpl. Henry Lozano.

    Prosecutors allege Avalos fired two shots into the 20-year-old victim's head because the young man was dating the defendant's ex-girlfriend.

    Avalos is charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and special circumstance allegations that the crimes were carried out with specific intent and that the defendant has a prior murder conviction.

    The ex-con is also accused in the Dec. 21, 1994, shootings that killed Jahi Collins and wounded Bobby Wilson while they sat in a car with two girls in the parking lot of a Desert Hot Springs park. Witnesses said Avalos and an accomplice targeted Prosecutors said the investigation into Lozano's death triggered Operation Falling SunCollins because he was black.

    Avalos was arrested in 2006 in connection with the Lozano killing. He is being held without bail at the county jail in Indio.

    Then-Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco said Lozano's mother brought the case to his attention in 2008, which prompted him to initiate an 8-month-long investigation into gangs in Desert Hot Springs.

    The raid was followed up by an injunction against the West Drive Locos and True Crime Boys gangs.

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    Closing arguments are scheduled on Tuesday for a man accused of killing a marine and a teenager.

    35 year old Emilio Manuel Avalos could face the death penalty in the murders of 20 year old marine corporal Henry Lozano and 17 year old Jahi Collins.

    The defendant is also charged with the attempted murder of Collins' friend Bobby Wilson, who was left paralyzed when Jahi was killed.

    http://www.kmir6.com/news/toprotator/171081511.html
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    Emilio Avalos murdered Marine Cpl. Henry Lozano and Jahi Collins, jury finds

    INDIO — A Desert Hot Springs gang member was convicted today of killing a U.S. Marine and a teenager in shootings that occurred seven years apart.

    Emilio Manuel Avalos, 35, faces a possible death sentence for the Dec. 19, 2001, slaying of 20-year-old Marine Cpl. Henry Lozano and the Dec. 21, 1994, shooting death of 17-year-old Jahi Collins. In addition to the murder charges, Avalos was also convicted of the attempted murder of Collins’ friend, Bobby Wilson, who was left paralyzed in the 1994 gunfire.

    Jurors deliberated for about half a day before reaching a verdict. The trial started on Aug. 13.

    The penalty phase of the trial, during which jurors will recommend either the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole, will begin Oct. 22.

    “We’re here because (Collins and Wilson) went to a park to hang out with girls and got ambushed in the most cowardly of ways ... and because Henry Lozano had the audacity to date a girl who used to date the defendant,” Deputy District Attorney Pete Nolan told jurors during his closing argument. “I ask you not to lose sight of that.”

    Nolan said that when Collins and Wilson were “at their most vulnerable, they were ambushed by the defendant and two of his West Drive Locos (associates).”

    “What you know is someone unloaded 14 rounds into Jahi Collins’ car,” he said.

    Nolan said the 2001 killing of Lozano was prompted by Avalos’ former girlfriend, who told Avalos she loved the Marine. She said Avalos responded by vowing to kill Lozano.

    On Dec. 18, 2001, Lozano spent the night at the girl’s house, “got up the next morning and he was shot ... in ambush style,” Nolan said. “Somebody drove up beside him, no doubt, and unloaded into his car.”

    One of Avalos’ attorneys, Bill Dittman, said witnesses corroborated that Avalos was in San Fernando on Dec. 19, 2001, and that Avalos didn’t have a motive to kill Lozano.

    “Emilio Avalos testified and told each of you he did not commit these crimes. Emilio Avalos is innocent of these crimes,” Dittman said in his closing argument.

    On the stand last week, Avalos denied telling his former girlfriend and three friends that he killed Collins and shot Wilson, and testified that he never said he would go after Lozano.

    Avalos’ other attorney, David Macher, contended that Wilson didn’t know who shot him, and the assailants wore masks.

    “(They) confirm that the identity of the gunman was not known then and is not known today,” Macher said in his closing argument.

    He said Wilson wouldn’t have concealed the gunman’s identity, and when he testified in the trial that he knew it was Avalos, he was lying.

    “Revenge -- that’s what Bobby Wilson wanted,” Macher said.

    There was “a whole universe of potential shooters out there, and that universe was a whole lot larger than Emilio Avalos,” he said.

    A judge consolidated the Lozano and Collins murder cases in 2007. The law allows combining separate crimes when they’re the same type or have similar attributes, according to district attorney’s spokesman John Hall, who asserted that both shootings showed a distinctive method of operation and evidence pointing to Avalos.

    Nolan told jurors in his opening statement last month that the case actually dated back to 1992, when Avalos was one of the people who started a gang in Desert Hot Springs that became known as the West Drive Locos. The gang didn’t like black people, and there was tension between Avalos and his associates and Collins, who was black, the prosecutor said.

    “In 1994, there was further disrespect ... Jahi Collins and Bobby Wilson had the audacity to take two girls and hang out with those girls in (a) park ... a park that belonged to West Drive Locos,” Nolan said.

    Avalos and his associates put on ski masks and opened fire, killing Collins and severing Wilson’s spine, the prosecutor said.

    Nolan said Wilson didn’t tell police who attacked them. The next year, Avalos told a woman he was dating “about killing a black kid and paralyzing a white kid” at a park, Nolan said.

    A man who knew Lozano and who was on trial for murder gave authorities information about both the 1994 and 2001 shootings, resulting in Avalos’ arrest in 2006 in connection with the serviceman’s slaying.

    http://www.mydesert.com/viewart/2012...sey=nav%7Chead

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    Should Emilio Manuel Avalos get death penalty for killing Marine and teen?

    Prosecutor argues for Desert Hot Springs gang member to be put to death; defense says Avalos would die in prison with life sentence

    A prosecutor told jurors Wednesday that the death penalty was a “fair and just” punishment for a Desert Hot Springs gang member convicted of killing a U.S. Marine and a teenager, but one of the man’s attorneys argued for life without the possibility of parole, saying his client would die in prison.

    The statements came as the penalty phase of trial began for 35-year-old Emilio Manuel Avalos, who was convicted in the Dec. 19, 2001, slaying of 20-year-old Marine Cpl. Henry Lozano and the Dec. 21, 1994, shooting death of 17-year-old Jahi Collins.

    Avalos was also convicted of the attempted murder of Collins’ friend, Bobby Wilson, who was left paralyzed in the 1994 gunfire at Wardman Park in Desert Hot Springs.

    The guilt phase of the trial started in August, and Avalos was convicted last month. In the penalty phase, jurors will hear evidence to determine whether to recommend a death sentence or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    Deputy District Attorney Pete Nolan told jurors they would hear about the impact of the murders and about past crimes for which Avalos hasn’t been charged or convicted.

    In September 2005, Avalos and other gang members robbed a Palm Springs glass factory where his girlfriend at the time worked, Nolan told the panel. He said they put a gun to the head of the sole employee present, bound him with duct tape and forced him to open the safe, escaping with about $40,000.

    “You’ll hear the phone calls ... it’s going to be crystal clear the defendant was the mastermind behind this,” Nolan said.

    In September 2004, a drug addict named Gabriel Lima who lived near Avalos and David Gazcon, another alleged gang member, stole something from one of the two men, Nolan alleged.

    “It was a sign of disrespect, because you do not steal from Emilio Avalos, you do not steal from West Drive Locos,” Nolan said.

    Gazcon and Avalos beat Lima and took him out to the desert and Avalos, who Nolan called the “shot caller,” said, “We’ve got to finish him, we can’t leave him alive,” according to the prosecutor.

    “He then got two bullets in the back of the head,” Nolan said.

    Gazcon is awaiting trial on a murder charge; Avalos isn’t charged in the case.

    “There’s no doubt that when you hear about all of the violence inflicted on the community of Desert Hot Springs ... there’s only one fair and just punishment, and that’s death for Emilio Avalos, and I’m going to ask you for that verdict,” Nolan told jurors.

    Avalos’ attorney, David Macher, said his client will die in prison, as the “verdicts in the guilt phase took away his freedom.”

    Now, he said, the jury is being asked to decide whether Avalos will die of natural causes behind bars “or die an abnormal death at the hands of the state of California.”

    In the glass factory robbery, he said Avalos became a suspect because his then-girlfriend was a suspect. In the Lima killing, “the identity of the shooter will be in dispute,” said Macher, who noted that Avalos is not charged in the murder.

    He claimed the prosecution would bring in an informant to falsely accuse his client of crimes.

    “The government is going to try to show you Emilio Avalos is the alleged shot caller who ordered the death, but they’re going to have to rely on the rat to make that presentation,” the defense attorney said.

    He said the defense would tell the jury about Avalos’s life, including the fact that he was exposed to gangs since childhood and joined one at age 11. A high school dropout at 15, he worked construction jobs and had a “tumultuous” relationship with a girlfriend, with whom he has a daughter, his attorney said.

    “Despite his lack of education, absence of work skills and dearth of parenting role models, Mr. Avalos was a good father,” Macher said.

    The defense plans to call expert witnesses to testify about topics such as risk factors for gang involvement, he said.

    “Will any of this evidence explain crimes? No, but it will inform the jury of who it is who will stand before you to be sentenced to death or life in prison without parole,” Macher said. “I will argue that the sentence of life without parole is fair and just in this case.”

    Avalos and other gang members shot Collins and Wilson as they sat in a car in the park after they met two girls. Avalos gunned down Lozano the morning he left the residence of his girlfriend, who Avalos had dated.

    A judge consolidated the Lozano and Collins murder cases in 2007. The law allows combining separate crimes when they’re the same type or have similar attributes, according to district attorney’s spokesman John Hall, who said both shootings showed a distinctive method of operation and evidence pointing to Avalos.

    http://www.mydesert.com/viewart/2012...member-killing
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    Prosecutor: killer should die

    The prosecution rested this week in the penalty phase of the trial of a Desert Hot Springs gang member convicted of killing a U.S. Marine and a teenager.

    Emilio Manuel Avalos, 35, was convicted in the Dec. 19, 2001, slaying of 20-year-old Marine Cpl. Henry Lozano and the Dec. 21, 1994, shooting death of 17-year-old Jahai Collins.

    Avalos was also convicted of the attempted murder of Collins’ friend, Bobby Wilson, who was left paralyzed in the 1994 gunfire at Wardman Park in Desert Hot Springs.

    The guilt phase of the trial started in August, and Avalos was convicted last month. In the penalty phase, jurors are hearing evidence to determine whether to recommend a death sentence or life in prison without the possibility of parole. The defense will start presenting its case on Tuesday.

    Deputy District Attorney Pete Nolan told jurors in his opening statement in the penalty phase that they would hear about the impact of the murders and about past crimes for which Avalos hasn’t been charged or convicted.

    In September 2005, Avalos and other gang members robbed a Palm Springs glass factory where his girlfriend at the time worked, Nolan told the panel. He said they put a gun to the head of the sole employee present, bound him with duct tape and forced him to open the safe, escaping with about $40,000.

    In September 2004, a drug addict named Gabriel Lima who lived near Avalos and David Gazcon, another alleged gang member, stole something from one of the two men, Nolan alleged.

    “It was a sign of disrespect, because you do not steal from Emilio Avalos, you do not steal from West Drive Locos,” Nolan said.

    Gazcon and Avalos beat Lima and took him out to the desert and Avalos, who Nolan called the “shot caller,” said, “We’ve got to finish him, we can’t leave him alive,” according to the prosecutor.

    “He then got two bullets in the back of the head,” Nolan said.

    Gazcon is awaiting trial on a murder charge; Avalos isn’t charged in the case.

    “There’s no doubt that when you hear about all of the violence inflicted on the community of Desert Hot Springs ... there’s only one fair and just punishment, and that’s death for Emilio Avalos, and I’m going to ask you for that verdict,” Nolan told jurors.

    Avalos’ attorney, David Macher, said his client will die in prison, as the “verdicts in the guilt phase took away his freedom.”

    Now, Macher said, the jury is being asked to decide whether Avalos will die of natural causes behind bars “or die an abnormal death at the hands of the state of California.”

    In the glass factory robbery, he said Avalos became a suspect because his then-girlfriend was a suspect. In the Lima killing, “the identity of the shooter will be in dispute,” said Macher, who noted that Avalos is not charged in the murder.

    http://www.mydesert.com/viewart/2012...ler-should-die
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    Closing arguments set in death penalty case

    The defense rested today in the penalty phase of the trial of a Desert Hot Springs gang member convicted of killing a U.S. Marine and a teenager.

    Emilio Manuel Avalos, 35, was convicted in the Dec. 19, 2001, slaying of 20-year-old Marine Cpl. Henry Lozano and the Dec. 21, 1994, shooting death of 17-year-old Jahi Collins.

    Avalos was also convicted of the attempted murder of Collins' friend, Bobby Wilson, who was left paralyzed in the 1994 gunfire at Wardman Park in Desert Hot Springs.

    Avalos was convicted last month. In the penalty phase, jurors are hearing evidence to determine whether to recommend a death sentence or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    Closing arguments are set for tomorrow morning.

    A judge consolidated the Lozano and Collins murder cases in 2007. The law allows combining separate crimes when they're the same type or have similar attributes, according to John Hall, a public information officer with the Riverside County District Attorney's office, who said both shootings showed a distinctive method of operation and evidence pointing to Avalos.

    http://www.kesq.com/news/Closing-arg...y/-/index.html
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    Jurors recommended the death penalty Wednesday for a Desert Hot Springs gang member who killed a U.S. Marine and a teenager.

    Emilio Manuel Avalos, 35, was convicted last month of the Dec. 19, 2001, slaying of 20-year-old Marine Cpl. Henry Lozano and the Dec. 21, 1994, shooting death of 17-year-old Jahi Collins. Jurors deliberated for about four hours in the penalty phase of his trial before recommending a death sentence.

    Superior Court Judge James Hawkins scheduled sentencing for Jan. 25.

    Avalos showed little reaction as the verdict was read.

    Lozano’s mother, Donna, told reporters after the verdict was read that Avalos “has no remorse and he has no soul.”

    “I’m thrilled — I didn’t think I believed in the death penalty, but I was glad to hear the word ‘death.’ I’m glad he gets the extreme penalty,” she said.

    She and Collins’ mother, Glenda, thanked the jury and others involved in the case.

    Avalos’ conviction for the Lozano killing made him eligible for the death penalty.

    He was only 17 when he killed Collins, so he wasn’t eligible for the death penalty in that case, according to the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.

    Avalos also was convicted of the attempted murder of Collins’ friend Bobby Wilson, who was left paralyzed in the 1994 shooting at Wardman Park in Desert Hot Springs.

    District Attorney Pete Nolan told jurors during the trial’s guilt phase that the case actually dated back to 1992, when Avalos co-founded a gang in Desert Hot Springs that became known as the West Drive Locos.

    The gang didn’t like black people, and there was tension between Avalos and his associates and Collins, who was black, the prosecutor said.

    Nolan said Avalos and his associates “stalked and haunted” Lozano, going to his house and talking to his mother.

    On Dec. 18, they went to Lozano’s girlfriend’s house and “waited and waited and waited until 6 in the morning, until he was vulnerable in his car, unable to run, and shot him,” Nolan said.

    A judge consolidated the Lozano and Collins murder cases in 2007.

    The law allows combining separate crimes when they’re of the same type or have similar attributes, according to John Hall, a spokesman for the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.
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    Convicted Murderer Sentenced To Death For Marine, Teenager Killings

    The ultimate sentence was given Friday to a known Desert Hot Springs gang member convicted of killing a U.S. Marine and a teenager.

    Emilio Manuel Avalos, 35, was convicted last fall for the 2001 murder of 20-year-old Marine Cpl. Henry Lozano as well as a 1994 shooting death of 17-year-old Jahi Collins. His jury recommended the death penalty, which was upheld by Riverside Superior Court Judge James S. Hawkins.

    KMIR6 was in the courtroom Friday as Avalos was sentenced to death for Lozano's murder, and to life in prison without the possibility of parole for Collins' murder.

    Avalos was also convicted of the attempted murder of Collins' friend, Bobby Wilson, who was left paralyzed in the 1994 shooting at Wardman Park in Desert Hot Springs.

    During the trial, attorneys painted a picture of Lozano's last moments, saying Avalos killed Lozano in the Desert Hot Springs residence of his girlfriend, who Avalos also dated at one time.

    Avalos' defense attorney, David Macher, asked jurors to feel sympathy not just for the victims' families, but also for Avalos' family.

    Avalos and other gang members shot at Collins and Wilson as they sat in a parked car.

    The Lozano and Collins murder cases were consolidated in 2007.

    http://www.kmir6.com/news/toprotator/192566001.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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