Jurors Weep in Convicting Guard’s Killer : Courts: Construction worker will be sentenced June 30 for the unprovoked slaying at an Orange movie theater.
SANTA ANA — Rejecting arguments that Jerry Lee Alonzo Jr. was too drunk to know what he was doing, an emotional Superior Court jury on Thursday convicted him of murder in the shooting of a movie theater security guard in Orange last year.
Alonzo, a 20-year-old unemployed construction worker, may face life in prison without the possibility of parole when he is sentenced on June 30 by Superior Court Judge Kathleen E. O’Leary.
The victim, Dagoberto R. Carrero, 23, was working his last shift as a security guard at the Century City Centre Theater when he was hit twice by bullets in the face and back on Feb. 19, 1994. Carrero, a former Marine who served in the Gulf War, had made plans to travel to Texas the next day for Air National Guard training.
Jurors deliberated for about seven hours, with some breaking into tears over the slaying’s tragic results, said juror Phyllis Fender of Fullerton.
“It was very difficult. There was a lot of empathy for the family of the man killed and the family of the man who was accused,†Fender said. “It was very emotional.â€
After the verdict, some jurors shared tears outside the court with Carrero’s wife.
“We feel so sorry for you,†one juror told Nicole Carrero.
Carrero said she was pleased by the jury’s decision.
“I’m just grateful it turned out the way it did,†she said. “I’m just very overwhelmed. Right now I’m in shock. I’m still devastated that this happened to my husband.â€
Deputy Dist. Atty. Lewis R. Rosenblum, who charged that Alonzo stalked and shot Carrero out of anger over a past encounter, praised the jury’s verdict.
“I’m gratified that they saw the case for what it was--an individual who decided to get back at a man who did nothing to him,†Rosenblum said.
Prosecutors said Alonzo watched a movie earlier that night and returned to the theater with a gun to kill Carrero. Alonzo hid until potential witnesses left the lobby before he opened fire six times, hitting Carrero twice, Rosenblum said.
Authorities said Alonzo summoned friends for a ride home after the shooting by paging them using the code “187,†which is also the number of the section in the state’s Penal Code dealing with homicide.
The two alleged accomplices--Rafael Maldonado and Jessie Pena, who were 20 and 19 at the time--are to stand trial for murder separately in August, Rosenblum said.
Defense attorney Jerome J. Goldfein argued that the killing was unintentional. He said Alonzo, who drank two bottles of Night Train wine several hours before the killing and was beset by personal problems, “lost it†in a fit of rage and began shooting at the front of the theater. Alonzo testified he did not see Carrero inside the theater until after he fired the shots.
The defense said Alonzo was later found to be suffering brain damage that made him unable to handle his problems.
But jurors were not persuaded.
“We didn’t feel in any way it caused him to be irrational beyond the point he knew what he was doing,†said juror Paul Martin of Huntington Beach. “It didn’t hold water with me.â€
Said juror Fender: “It was not a good defense. . . . This was a deliberate act.â€
Carrero, who survived seven months of flying helicopter missions in the Persian Gulf, was chosen Marine of the Year in 1991 from among 250 members of his Tustin-based squadron. He was a junior aerial gunner instructor and a crew chief on a four-member CH-53 helicopter team.
In addition to his wife, Carrero is survived by their 2-year-old daughter.
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