anyone read or hear aboput this incident i know its kinda old but this was in todays paper\
San Jose killer gets 80-year prison term
GANG MEMBER SHOT 15-YEAR-OLD AT SELMA OLINDER PARK IN APRIL
By Elise Banducci
Mercury News
A Norteño gang member who confessed to shooting a 15-year-old boy as the sun set on a San Jose neighborhood park in April was sentenced Thursday to more than 80 years to life in prison.
Without a trial, lawyers in the case continued to debate whether the killing was a foolish mistake or a cold-blooded murder.
Alexander Diaz, 20, entered the Santa Clara County courtroom, hands and feet shackled, with a cool self-assuredness. He expressed remorse through his attorney for killing Christian Jimenez, a popular eighth-grader whose death horrified and galvanized the community just east of downtown San Jose.
But the prosecutor and the judge questioned the sincerity of a gang member who scratched ``Tiny'' -- his nickname -- and ``187'' -- the law enforcement code for first-degree murder -- into a window at the county jail, according to court documents.
Authorities say Diaz and two companions jumped Christian Jimenez and a friend April 24 at Selma Olinder Park because they incorrectly thought the boys were from a rival gang. Diaz fired the fatal gunshot into Christian's chest.
Last month, Diaz took an unusual step and pleaded no contest to first-degree murder with enhancements for using a gun and belonging to a gang. He also pleaded no contest to assaulting Christian's friend at the park, and to an unrelated home-invasion robbery the day before his arrest.
``I know in my heart it was an accident,'' Diaz told the Mercury News during an interview in May, in which he declined to say whether he was in the park at the time of the shooting. ``It's real sad that the kid didn't get to live.''
But police say they secretly taped a conversation between Diaz and another suspect in the home invasion in which Diaz said he only claimed the shooting was an accident after officers suggested the idea.
``I played the part hella good,'' Diaz told the friend, according to court documents. Not all of the taped conversation was included in the documents.
Prosecutor David Tomkins said Diaz also wrote a letter to a friend allegedly admitting that he got away with a murder when he was 15.
But Public Defender Damon Silver insisted Diaz was indeed sorry for killing Christian and had pleaded no contest to spare his family and his victim's family the agony of a trial.
He said any statements Diaz made to friends about the killing should be placed in the context of gang culture.
San Jose killer gets 80-year prison term
GANG MEMBER SHOT 15-YEAR-OLD AT SELMA OLINDER PARK IN APRIL
By Elise Banducci
Mercury News
A Norteño gang member who confessed to shooting a 15-year-old boy as the sun set on a San Jose neighborhood park in April was sentenced Thursday to more than 80 years to life in prison.
Without a trial, lawyers in the case continued to debate whether the killing was a foolish mistake or a cold-blooded murder.
Alexander Diaz, 20, entered the Santa Clara County courtroom, hands and feet shackled, with a cool self-assuredness. He expressed remorse through his attorney for killing Christian Jimenez, a popular eighth-grader whose death horrified and galvanized the community just east of downtown San Jose.
But the prosecutor and the judge questioned the sincerity of a gang member who scratched ``Tiny'' -- his nickname -- and ``187'' -- the law enforcement code for first-degree murder -- into a window at the county jail, according to court documents.
Authorities say Diaz and two companions jumped Christian Jimenez and a friend April 24 at Selma Olinder Park because they incorrectly thought the boys were from a rival gang. Diaz fired the fatal gunshot into Christian's chest.
Last month, Diaz took an unusual step and pleaded no contest to first-degree murder with enhancements for using a gun and belonging to a gang. He also pleaded no contest to assaulting Christian's friend at the park, and to an unrelated home-invasion robbery the day before his arrest.
``I know in my heart it was an accident,'' Diaz told the Mercury News during an interview in May, in which he declined to say whether he was in the park at the time of the shooting. ``It's real sad that the kid didn't get to live.''
But police say they secretly taped a conversation between Diaz and another suspect in the home invasion in which Diaz said he only claimed the shooting was an accident after officers suggested the idea.
``I played the part hella good,'' Diaz told the friend, according to court documents. Not all of the taped conversation was included in the documents.
Prosecutor David Tomkins said Diaz also wrote a letter to a friend allegedly admitting that he got away with a murder when he was 15.
But Public Defender Damon Silver insisted Diaz was indeed sorry for killing Christian and had pleaded no contest to spare his family and his victim's family the agony of a trial.
He said any statements Diaz made to friends about the killing should be placed in the context of gang culture.
