A jury Tuesday voted for the death penalty for an Azusa gang member who took part in a crime wave that rocked the tranquil San Gabriel Valley city in the early part of the decade.
Ralph "Swifty" Flores, 26, sat stoically as a clerk read the verdict in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Flores -- who had grown a mustache over the gang tattoo "Azusa 13" inked below his nose -- was convicted last year of killing four people.
For Azusa, the case marks the end to a violent chapter in which a handful of gang members called the "trigger clique" terrorized the town with a series of shootings, killings, robberies and hate crimes targeting blacks. Their rampage lasted from 1999 to 2004.
Besides Flores, seven other Azusa 13 gang members were convicted of the crimes and sentenced to lengthy prison terms -- five of them in one 2004 trial.
"It was a violent time for the city," said Sgt. Mike Bertelsen, Azusa's gang expert. "We were having a murder a month at the end of 2002."
What brought this violent period to an end "was a combination of citizens, the clergy, City Council and police all working together," said City Manager Francis Delach. "I think that had a big impact."
Azusa's experience shows how a few gang members following directives from the Mexican Mafia prison gang can become a public policy issue, scaring residents while taxing the budget and police resources of an otherwise peaceful town.
For more than 15 years, the Mexican Mafia prison gang has ordered some Southern California street gangs to "tax" drug dealers and funnel the proceeds to gang members. In some areas, Mexican Mafia members have ordered street gangs to attack blacks.
Directives from the prison gang "make their way out to the street. People on the street want to make a name for themselves," said Azusa Police Capt. Sam Gonzalez.
Two Mexican Mafia associates -- Gabriel "Downer" Aguilar and Robert "Thumper" Ramirez -- were paroled to Azusa in early 2002 and allegedly began organizing the gang to collect from local drug dealers.
Azusa police say both men were acting on authority of Jacques "Jacko" Padilla, the Mexican Mafia member reputed to control Azusa gangs and drug-dealing from his maximum-security cell.
For a time, Aguilar lived on a tier with Padilla at Pelican Bay State Prison, enhancing his reputation on Azusa streets, say police and prison officials.
