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FACTS

The Crimes On July 23, 2003, Javier S., his brother Diego S., their father Alvaro S., their uncle Jose L., and Pedro V., John E. and Benjamin E. were in a courtyard area of an apartment building on 6th Street in Long Beach when a group of between 6 and 13 Hispanic males, most with shaved heads and wearing white T-shirts, entered the area through a gate from a rear alley.2 One of the intruding males approached Javier S., and asked him, “Are you the one fucking with my sister?” Javier S. replied that they had the wrong person. The man punched Javier S. in the face. A melee ensued with victims scattering and running for doors and the front of the property. More than one of the assailants yelled, “This is BST,” meaning Barrio Small Town, a criminal street gang. During the attack, Alvaro S.‟s abdomen was knifed open, spilling his intestines. Jose L. was stabbed multiple times in the back, and Pedro V. was stabbed in the chest. Witnesses saw and or heard two cars race from the area. One of the fleeing cars, registered to the mother of Juan Aguas (a co-defendant in the trial court, but not a party to the current appeal), crashed into a parked vehicle, and flipped over.

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