Death Sentence Upheld For Man Convicted Of 4 South Bay Murders

PALOS VERDES, CA – The California Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for a Wilmington street gang member who murdered four people during a monthlong crime spree in the South Bay, it was announced Thursday.

The California court rejected the defense's argument that there was insufficient evidence to support Ruben Perez Gomez's conviction for the May 26, 1997 killing of aerospace engineer Rajandra Patel in Wilmington and the shooting death of Raul Luna, a reputed drug dealer who was shot to death outside his Torrance home on June 10, 1997.

The justices also rejected a similar claim that there was not enough evidence to support the jury's finding of premeditation and deliberation involving two other killings – the July 1, 1997, shooting deaths of reputed drug dealer Robert Dunton and his bodyguard, Robert Acosta, at Dunton's home in San Pedro.

Gomez, now 48, was sentenced to death in March 2000 for the killings of Patel and Luna, and life in prison without the possibility of parole for the slayings of Dunton and Acosta.

Jurors deadlocked on a fifth murder charge involving the June 9, 1997, killing of Jesus Escareno, who was found dead at a shopping center in San Pedro. That charge was subsequently dismissed at the prosecution's request.

At Gomez's sentencing, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Pounders said the defendant "seemed to have no remorse in killing anybody."

Patel, a La Palma man who had been kidnapped and robbed, was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head beside the Anaheim Street exit to the Harbor (110) Freeway. His white Toyota Camry was subsequently found partially burned, and jewelry he had been wearing was recovered from a pawn shop in Las Vegas, Supreme Court Justice Goodwin H. Liu noted in the 106-page ruling.

The justices found that "substantial evidence places Gomez at the crime scene at the time of the murder" of Luna, and that the evidence tended to show that Gomez used Luna's cell phone immediately after Luna's murder.

"... There is no dispute that Gomez participated in the killing of Acosta and Dunton," the panel wrote, noting that there is "significant evidence showing that Gomez murdered Acosta and Dunton as part of a calculated plan on behalf of the Mexican Mafia."

Dunton and Acosta were killed because Dunton had failed to pay his "taxes" to the Mexican Mafia, and the gang had ordered the hit, according to testimony presented during Gomez's trial.

Gomez was not an associate of the Mexican Mafia, but was in trouble with the prison-based gang, which had put out a "green light" – or contract – on him, according to the prosecution. The hit enabled Gomez to get his own "green light" reversed within the Mexican Mafia culture.

Co-defendant Arturo Grajeda was convicted of the killings of Dunton and Acosta, and was sentenced in May 2000 to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The California Supreme Court refused in 2001 to review the case against Grajeda.

City News Service contributed to this post; Image via Shutterstock