Year’s First Homicide: Premeditated Murder or Self Defense?

By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

July 27 -- After midnight on a Sunday in early March, two boys in their late teens stood with a loaded gun in the shadowed, third-floor corridor of a Santa Monica housing project and waited.

At around 1:20 a.m. the apartment door opened and the man they were waiting for stepped outside to leave. The sound of gunshots pierced the night, ripping area residents from their sleep.

Police soon swarmed the scene to find the bullet-riddled body of Gabriel Becerrada -- a 38-year-old convicted felon and Venice street gang member known as “Shady” -- on the doorstep.

Next week, the two teens -- the 17-year-old son of Becerrada’s girlfriend, Sandra Alfaro, and his 19-year-old friend, Luke Yeron -- will be tried for murder in the first degree. Alfaro will be tried for assisting with the teens’ escape.

While defense attorneys and prosecutors agree that the two teenagers gunned down Becerrada in the city’s first homicide this year, arguments at the August 2 trial will center on whether they were acting in self-defense.

Prosecutors admit that “threats were made earlier in the day” against Alfaro by Becerrada -- a known member of a violent Oakwood street gang which goes by the name the “Venice 13” -- but that the couple had reconciled by that evening and that there was no immediate threat against the Alfaro family.

“There is evidence that the mother conveyed the threats made to (her son)… but we do not believe this is a case of self-defense,” said Larry Droeger, the Los Angeles District Attorney handling the case.

“In order for this to be self-defense, it would require an imminent threat of harm,” he said. “The plans to ambush Becerrada were hatched in a separate location across town… and several hours earlier in the day. It was all premeditated.”

The plan to kill Becerrada was unknown to Sandra Alfaro, said Droeger, but she became an accessory to the murder after it happened by assisting in the boys’ escape.

Because of the “special circumstance” of “lying in wait,” Droeger said the death penalty could be applied for the 19-year-old defendant if prosecutors choose to seek it. That option will be off the table for 17-year-old Alfaro, who allegedly pulled the trigger, because of his status as a minor, said Droeger.

Despite prosecutor’s assertions that there was no imminent threat, defense attorneys argue that this is a case of kill or be killed.

“He threatened to kill (Alfaro’s) mother, his sister, him and his whole family,” said Yeron’s lawyer, Robin Yanes.

Yanes said the teens were protecting the Alfaro family from a dangerous man.

“Shady was a hit man for the Venice 13,” Yanes said. “He was involved in drugs, and all sorts of other criminal acts. When Shady threatened to kill you, he meant it.”

Although never convicted of murder, Becerrada had an extensive rap sheet including some violent crimes and had been behind bars for nearly 11 years.

“More details will come out as the case comes along,” said Yanes, “and people will see that these boys acted in self-defense.”

There is no bail set for the two teens, and Alfaro’s bail has been set at $100,000, according to information on the County Sheriff’s website.