Prosecutors said the fatal shooting of a Bloomington gang member was an act of revenge, but the defense argued the 16-year-old acted rashly and not intentionally.

By Rochelle Olson

February 5, 2008 at 5:10AM

Left alone in a Bloomington Police Department interview room, Sureños 13 gang member Jose Chavarria-Cruz cried and flipped over a photograph of the man he admitted to fatally shooting, rival gang member Carlos (Charlie) Hernandez Perez, according to a video shown at trial Monday.

"Is he the cold-blooded killer the government portrays him as?" defense lawyer Jeff Degree asked in his closing argument to the Hennepin County District Court jury. "He knew what he had done was terrible."

Chavarria-Cruz faces eight counts related to the shooting, including first-degree murder. The defense doesn't dispute that he fired the fatal shots in May 2006, but argued that the shooting was the "rash, impulsive" act of a 16-year-old.

Jurors began deliberating late Monday and are expected to continue today.

In her closing argument, Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Hilary Caligiuri said the shooting was a revenge killing in a gang rivalry that goes back 10 years to the killing of "Tiny," a Sureños 13 member, in north Minneapolis.

Hernandez Perez was a member of the rival Vatos Locos gang.

Degree said the jurors didn't hear much about Chavarria-Cruz's life: "We don't know why at the age of 15 he decided to hang around with these knuckleheads, these idiots. ... We can only assume growing up in south Minneapolis, he looked up to those guys."

Chavarria-Cruz had taken Ecstasy and smoked marijuana at a friend's house on what Degree described as an "average night." Eventually, he ended up in a car with four other gang members and two guns.

On a mission for revenge

One of the guns, a loaded .22-caliber, ended up in Chavarria-Cruz's hands and the group drove to the Bloomington home where Hernandez Perez lived with his family. The Sureños 13 members lured him out by pretending to be fellow Vatos Lacos seeking to trade marijuana and cash for a gun.

When the victim encountered the defendant and Noel Escarcega, he learned they were rival gang members. He tried to wrestle Escarcega's gun away and the clip fell out.

Chavarria-Cruz then went into his pocket to pull out the .22, according to both the defense and prosecution.

"If Jose Cruz went there to kill this man, would his gun have been in his pocket?" Degree asked.

The defendant fired six shots at Hernandez Perez.

Caligiuri, however, pointed out that the gangsters by their own admission were on a mission that night to secure revenge for previous shootings.

"The defendant wasn't just along for the ride," she said. "The defendant held that .22-caliber handgun. He pulled the trigger. He killed Charlie Hernandez."

Initially, five defendants were scheduled for trial together. Felipe Saldivar-Alvillar, who drove that night, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit first-degree premeditated murder for the benefit of a gang, and agreed to testify in exchange for potential sentencing leniency.

Escarcega pleaded guilty to second-degree intentional murder for the benefit of a gang. Tarun Solorzano-O'Brien pleaded guilty to aiding an offender after the fact for the benefit of a gang. Jose Manuel Saldivar-Alvillar's case is unresolved because his lawyer died before trial. Felipe is his older brother.

Rochelle Olson • 612-673-1747