Man Convicted in Girl’s Death Sentenced to 30 Years to Life

SANTA ANA —  A former Irvine man convicted in the murder of a 14-year-old girl outside a party apologized to her relatives in court Friday, moments before a judge sentenced him to 30 years to life in prison.

Albert Garcia Guerrero, 29, said he was sorry and that he didn’t mean to hurt anyone when he took his cousin’s pistol and shot at a car carrying Lilia Vianey Guevara, a Westminster High School sophomore.

Guerrero, however, did not fire the bullet that killed Guevara. That shot is believed to have come from another man in his group, who is at large in Mexico.

Citing Guerrero’s remorse and the fact that he didn’t fire the fatal bullet, defense attorney Thomas Goethals asked Judge John J. Ryan to impose a lesser sentence on manslaughter charges instead of first-degree murder. But the judge rejected the argument, saying that Guerrero had plenty of chances to walk away from the crime and didn’t.

It took two trials before Guerrero was convicted in July by a Superior Court jury. The first jury convicted him of assault with a deadly weapon on two teenagers who were in the same car, but deadlocked 10 to 2 in favor of a guilty verdict in Guevara’s slaying.

“It’s taken us seven years to get to this point,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Lew Rosenblum, who prosecuted the case, which was delayed because Guerrero fled to Mexico and was not arrested until 1995. Then a Mexican judge released him, and he did not return to California to face trial until the next year, police said.

One of three suspects in the shooting is still hiding in Mexico, investigators said. Police are trying to work with authorities there to arrest Robert Garcia, who is suspected of firing the fatal bullet, Rosenblum said. Guerrero’s brother, Ruben Guerrero, was arrested following the shooting and later convicted of murder.

The 1991 shooting occurred outside a Friday night party following a football game at Tustin High School. A fistfight erupted at about the same time that Guevara and her friends arrived, so they got back into their car and drove away, Rosenblum said. As they did, shots were fired at their car from the street.

As Guevara turned around to check on a friend, a bullet went through the seat and killed her, the prosecutor said.

Goethals, Guerrero’s attorney, had argued that his client did not kill Guevara and should not be held responsible. Furthermore, he told jurors, the prosecution’s witnesses had changed their stories to fit the crime.

In a letter to the court, Guevara’s grandmother, who raised her, wrote, “I had all my hopes and dreams deposited in her. Everything vanished.”

Evlia Sanchez expressed some closure by ending the letter with “God bless you” to Guerrero and his family.