Oct 6, 2008 4:56 pm US/Pacific
Mother Convicted Of Driving Kids To Gang Murder
LONG BEACH
A mother of three was convicted Monday of second-degree murder for driving a group of youths, including her son, to a Long Beach
park, where a 13-year-old boy was stabbed to death in an apparent revenge attack in June 2007.
The Long Beach Superior Court jury that heard the case against Eva Daley, 31, also found true an allegation that the June 25, 2007, slaying of
Jose Cano was committed for the benefit of a criminal street gang.
Just a few hours earlier, the same panel convicted Heriberto Garcia, now
17, guilty of second-degree murder for repeatedly stabbing the victim. The
jury, which had begun deliberations last Thursday morning, also found true the gang allegation against Garcia, who was tried as an adult.
Daley and Garcia are each facing state prison terms of 15 years to life.
Daley is set to be sentenced Nov. 4 by Judge Arthur Jean, while Garcia is due back on Oct. 28.
Five other youths, including Daley's son, previously admitted a manslaughter charge in juvenile court and were sent to the California Youth Authority, where they can be held until age 25. The case of another youth is still pending in juvenile court.
In his closing argument, Deputy District Attorney John Lonergan told
jurors that Daley knew something was going to happen that night.
"She had the knowledge of what they were going to do ... she was not an
innocent mother who was just doing her son a favor," Lonergan said.
The deputy district attorney said Cano's slaying could have been in
retaliation for either the stabbing of Daley's son about six months earlier --
allegedly by Cano -- or for an incident earlier the night Cano died, when gang members threw flares toward Daley's apartment complex.
"He was armed when he went to that location," the prosecutor said of
Garcia. "He took that knife and stabbed not once, not twice ... nine times."
Garcia's attorney, Jack Fuller, told jurors that the prosecution had not
proven premeditation and deliberation or intent to kill.
"Just the use of a knife doesn't prove intent to kill," Fuller said in
his closing argument.
Daley's attorney, Javier Ramirez, argued that the evidence supported his
client's contention that she didn't know what was going to occur when the
youths, including her eldest son, Mauricio Rivera, piled out of her Chevrolet Tahoe.
Daley testified in her own defense last week, telling jurors that she
was intending "to take them home safe" and didn't know what the youths were doing when they jumped out of her sport utility vehicle.
Daley denied being out to get revenge for her son's stabbing six months
earlier and told jurors that she did not learn about the killing until the next
day when she heard about it while attending a parenting class in which she had voluntarily enrolled.
Daley was arrested by Long Beach police four days after the killing. She
has remained jailed since then.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
