Gang Member Draws 42 Years for ‘Cold, Calculated’ Murders

A Los Angeles gang member was sentenced Monday to a total of 42 years to life in prison for two 1986 killings that the judge called “a particularly cold and calculated combination of murders.”

Juan Martinez Esqueda, 18, who was convicted last April of first-degree and second-degree murder, sat quietly as Superior Court Judge Curtis Rappe read his sentences.

Rappe rejected a defense request that Esqueda serve concurrent terms at a youth facility.

Instead, the judge imposed two maximum terms to be served consecutively at a state prison: 25 years to life for first-degree murder, and 15 years to life for second-degree murder. Esqueda received another year for each murder because a gun was involved in the killings, for a total of 42 years. If he qualifies for parole, Esqueda could be released in about 30 years at the earliest, Deputy Dist. Atty. Joseph Markus said.

“This is a young individual who is going to stay in prison for basically the rest of his life, and he deserves it,” Markus said.

Rappe said that Esqueda--believed to be a member of the Tiny Locos branch of the 18th Street Gang, a Latino gang that is the largest in Los Angeles County--picked a rival gang member “at random” in the first murder.

Prosecutors said Esqueda ordered another gang member to gun down Harry Lopez in retaliation for the stabbing of a Tiny Locos gang member in April, 1986, even though there was no proof that Lopez had anything to do with the stabbing.

The second murder, the shooting death of Paulino Hernandez for insulting the sister of a Tiny Locos member, had an “even more trivial motive,” Rappe said.

Esqueda’s court-appointed attorney, Debra Frank, requested concurrent sentences for the two murders at a California Youth Authority institution. She said psychiatrists had found that Esqueda is a “passive, immature individual, somewhat below normal in intelligence” who had been manipulated into his crimes by more sophisticated peers.

Markus replied that Esqueda was “one of the hard-core gang members” of the Tiny Locos and said “the defendant has not shown a tremendous amount of remorse.” He asked for consecutive sentences at a state prison, saying the two murders were “separate and distinct.”

Five relatives of Esqueda watched the proceedings quietly, dabbing away tears when the sentence was read. They declined to comment afterward.