Railroad Accidents

A gasp filled a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday as a judge sentenced a former Compton laborer to 11 consecutive life prison terms for triggering a commuter train crash that killed 11 people, the deadliest train crash in Metrolink's history. Convicted murderer Juan Manuel Alvarez sat silent, and the gasp, along with audible sighs, came from the gallery as Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge William R. Pounders handed down the sentence.

Charles Peck had gone through some tough times in recent years, including a divorce, but things were looking up. Peck, 49, had fallen in love again, with longtime friend Andrea Katz of Westlake Village. In February, he asked Katz to be his wife. But there was a problem. Peck, the father of three grown children, lived in Salt Lake City, and Katz didn't want to get married until they were living in the same state. So, for six months, Peck looked for work in California.

Still in a daze from the crash, Donald Ashman walked over to the first body. Ashman knelt down and lifted a corner of a white blanket covering the body, placed his hand on the man's forehead and said the words he had said so many times before, almost always at a hospital: "May God Almighty have mercy upon thee, forgive thee thy sins and bring thee to everlasting life." The prayer took just a few seconds.

Federal investigators said Wednesday that records from Metrolink engineer Robert M. Sanchez's cellphone show that he sent and received text messages while on duty Friday, the day he was involved in a catastrophic train collision in Chatsworth. However, investigators have not yet analyzed the records to determine whether Sanchez was using his phone at the time his train slammed into an oncoming Union Pacific freight train in an accident that left 25 people dead and 135 others injured.

Chen-Wyuan Kari Hsieh didn't want to trouble her father to drive her from the family's Newhall home to their restaurant in Simi Valley, her sister said. So she figured out how to get there on the train and climbed aboard Friday. Hsieh, 18, was among the victims of last week's deadly Metrolink crash. "I think she was a really lovely sister and a really lovely daughter," said Sophia Hsieh, 20. "There's a lot about my sister that no words can describe."

Beverly Mosely left a bad marriage in Florida, boarding a Greyhound bus to California with her two daughters and a single suitcase, hoping for a fresh start. In the 24 years that followed, it seemed to her loved ones that she had created a good life for herself. Mosely, 57, worked her way up from a vocational nurse who worked nights to become the ombudsman at Kaiser Permanente Panorama City Medical Center.

As a bugler played taps outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on Thursday, LAPD Officer Laura Gerritsen stood up and saluted the flag-draped casket of her life partner, Officer Spree DeSha. Gerritsen was in uniform, and the action seemed fitting to honor a woman who was remembered in a nearly three-hour funeral ceremony as a model police officer. DeSha, 35, a seven-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, was among 25 people killed and 135 injured Sept.

For more than 13 hours, Pastor Tony Amatangelo had prayed and watched over his friend and fellow minister as he lay in a county hospital after being pulled from the wreckage of Metrolink 111. Paul Long died, and four hours later, physically and emotionally spent, Amatangelo returned to his Moorpark home. Sunday service was coming. What would he say? The pastor felt chances were slim that the sermon he had written for the service would be relevant after the crash. Then he remembered.

Engineer Robert M. Sanchez pulled Metrolink 111 out of the Chatsworth station and was rolling north at 54 mph. About a mile later, he entered a restricted speed zone and throttled down to 42 mph. Just ahead, on his right side, was a red light. It was a warning to stop so that an oncoming Union Pacific freight train could move off the main track and onto a siding.

Coasting out of Chatsworth at 4:22 p.m., Doyle Souser had caught an early train home from work to cook his family a nice tri-tip for dinner. Charles Peck had just wrapped up an interview for a job he hoped would land him in Southern California so he could marry his fiancee. Aida Magdaleno, a farmworker's daughter studying at Cal State Northridge, was on her way home to attend her nephew's baptism. They didn't know one another.