Mood:
sadI personally don't think he should be given the death penalty. I mean the guy is obviously suicidal and almost ended his own life. To give him the death penalty would make no sense since death is exactly what he wants! For that reason alone he should be forced to live a long long life in prison so he can remember every day what he did. I mean if he is going to get death, they might as well just remove the "suicide watch" from his cell so he can finish what he wanted.
My heart goes out to all of those affected by this. Such a horrible and senseless tragedy. :(
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LA train crash suspect charged with murder
11 killed, two dozen in critical condition
NBC, MSNBC and news services
Updated: 10:41 a.m. ET Jan. 27, 2005
GLENDALE, Calif. - The suicidal man who authorities say caused the chain-reaction train derailment that killed 11 people has been charged with multiple counts of murder and could face the death penalty, the district attorney said Thursday.
Juan Manuel Alvarez, 25, left his sport utility vehicle on a railroad track Wednesday after changing his mind about committing suicide, authorities said. He was held without bail at a hospital's jail ward after apparently slitting his own wrists and stabbing himself in the chest.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said prosecutors filed charges for 10 counts of murder with "special circumstances" of committing murder through a train derailment. Under state law, special circumstances allegations can make a defendant eligible for the death penalty.
Cooley said the complaint would be amended to add another count to refer to the 11th victim, found in the wreckage late Wednesday night.
Alvarez is cooperating in the investigation, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca told NBC News earlier on Thursday.
Eleven bodies have been recovered from the wreckage site. Some 180 people were injured.
Baca said Alvarez went beyond leaving his car at a train crossing, instead driving it off the road and onto a railbed where the vehicle became trapped between two tracks.
Investigators say Alvarez stood by and watched the gruesome collision, which scattered wreckage and bodies over a quarter-mile of track.
'Deranged individual'
"This whole incident was started by a deranged individual that was suicidal," Glendale police Chief Randy Adams said Wednesday. "I think his intent at that time was to take his own life but changed his mind prior to the train actually striking this vehicle."
Alvarez was arrested at the scene shortly after the crash.
The crash was the worst U.S. rail tragedy since March 15, 1999, when an Amtrak train hit a truck and derailed near Bourbonnais, Ill., killing 11 people and injuring more than 100.
"I hope that we're able to assess this in a way that we can figure out: Is there a way that we can stop one crazed individual from creating this kind of carnage?" Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn told reporters.
Two dozen in critical shape
Among the two women and nine men killed was a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy on his way to work. About two dozen people were hospitalized in critical condition.
Alvarez's estranged wife, Carmelita Alvarez, had ordered him out of her home months ago, her family said, and in November she went to court seeking a temporary restraining order keeping him away from herself, their 3-year-old son, her mother, brother and other family members.
"He is using drugs and has been in and out of rehab twice," she said in asking for the restraining order, which was granted Dec. 14. "He threatened to take our kid away and to hurt my family members," she added. "He is planning on selling his vehicle to buy a gun and threatened to use it."
Alvarez, who lived in a converted garage behind her sister's home in suburban Compton, told the court her husband had damaged her family's property and threatened to seek revenge on people he suspected of introducing her to another man. She said his drug use was triggering hallucinations.
She went into seclusion shortly after the crash.
"Whether we make any comment right now depends on my sister," her brother, Ruben Ochoa, told The Associated Press outside the family home on Wednesday. "We're not commenting right now."
The victims of Wednesday's crash included several public employees who worked in or around Los Angeles.
Among them was Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy James Tutino, 47, whose flag-draped body was saluted by law enforcement officers and firefighters as it was carried from the wreckage.
Metrolink, the Southern California commuter rail service that operates the train tracks, said it was the worst accident in its 13-year history.
Metrolink chief executive David Solow said the severity of the wreck was due to the car having been wedged tightly into the tracks, creating an "immovable object."
'The train tilted'
The force of the collision hurled passengers down the trains' aisles.
"It's like we went from 55 to 60 (mph) to zero in two seconds flat," one injured man told reporters.
"I heard a noise. It got louder and louder," said passenger Diane Brady, 56, of Simi Valley. "And next thing I knew the train tilted, everyone was screaming and I held onto a pole for dear life. I held on for what seemed like a week and a half it seemed. It was a complete nightmare."
First on the scene were workers at a Costco store next to the tracks. They helped take some of the injured away in shopping carts. Uninjured passengers also joined the rescue effort. As a light rain fell, more than 300 firefighters climbed ladders into windows of battered train cars to rescue scores of injured.
Costco employee Hugo Moran said an elderly man covered in blood and soot and with apparent broken arms and legs was pulled out of the wreckage but died soon after. Before he died, he thanked his rescuers and asked them to pray for him.
Another trapped man had used his own blood to write a note on a seat bottom. Using the heart symbol, he wrote "I love my kids" and "I love Leslie."
The man's identity wasn't known, but Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Capt. Rex Vilaubi said he was removed from the wreckage alive.
The commuter trains also struck a parked freight train, sparking a brief fire.
Costco employee Jenny Doll said trapped passengers -- some severely injured -- screamed for help as flames raced toward the front of a train car and smoke and diesel fumes filled the air. Forklift operators, truck drivers and stock clerks worked side-by-side to pull victims out, using store shopping carts to wheel some of the most severely injured to safety.
"There were people stuck in the front. Everything was mangled," Doll said. "You could not even tell that it was a train cab at all."
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
