Killers lived in the small house nestled between two freeways and a cemetery in East Los Angeles. Ray Lugo, a longtime detective for the Los Angeles County Sheriff\u2019s Department, was sure of it. <\/p>\n
From 2014 to 2018, three people were gunned down within a two-mile radius of the house on Humphreys Avenue. Each victim had ties to Anthony Velasquez, who shared the home with his father, Manuel. <\/p>\n
Lugo had clues pointing to the father and son: A fight with one of the victims. Ballistic evidence. A description of a car that matched the one in the Velasquez family\u2019s driveway. <\/p>\n
What the detective didn\u2019t have was anyone willing to testify.<\/p>\n
Cut off from the rest of East Los Angeles by the 60 and 710 freeways and the Calvary Cemetery, the neighborhood where the younger Velasquez spent his whole life was an \u201cisland,\u201d Lugo said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat community is really, really tight,\u201d said the detective, who grew up in a different part of East Los Angeles. \u201cEverybody knows each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
To hear Lugo tell it, Velasquez lived like a recluse in the home his grandparents had purchased. He claimed to a probation officer that he worked as a custodian in a meat processing factory, but plainclothes detectives who kept him under surveillance reported to Lugo that he rarely ventured out. He didn\u2019t even own a cellphone. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Anthony Velasquez stands for a booking photo taken by the L.A. County Sheriff\u2019s Department, which investigated him for three homicides.<\/p>\n
(Los Angeles County Sheriff\u2019s Department)<\/p>\n
His father, who made a living as a driveway mechanic, also stayed home, Lugo said. <\/p>\n
Lugo made no secret of the fact that he considered the father and son suspects. He impounded their car, tapped Manuel\u2019s phone and arranged for deputies to post fliers on their street that solicited leads. <\/p>\n
None of it seemed to work. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe felt extremely safe,\u201d Lugo said of the younger Velasquez. \u201cWhen the neighbors fear you, you feel empowered.\u201d<\/p>\n
In their insular community, where neighbors have lived alongside one another for generations, the Velasquez family was the odd one out. <\/p>\n
The son was a \u201cloner,\u201d said Diana Prieto, the niece of one victim, but people knew enough to fear him.<\/p>\n
The first homicide was carried out near flawlessly, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Catherine Mariano. The prosecutor traced the motive to a fight in 2014 between Velasquez and Jesus Avalos, 33, who lived a few blocks from the Velasquez home. <\/p>\n
Velasquez, then 23, had shown up to Avalos\u2019 house looking for a woman. Told she wasn\u2019t there, he got angry and fired a gun in the air before leaving, Lugo said. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jesus Antonio Avalos, shown with his family in an undated photograph, was found shot to death on Feb. 11, 2014.<\/p>\n
(Bertha Avalos)<\/p>\n
Avalos and Velasquez hung out in the same circle of friends who drank beer and smoked methamphetamine together, Lugo said. They called each other by nicknames. Avalos was \u201cGilligan.\u201d Velasquez was \u201cClowner.\u201d <\/p>\n
Short and pale, with acne scars pitting his cheeks, Velasquez tattooed \u201cClowner\u201d across the front of his neck. His nickname suggested he was the joker of the crowd, the one who provided the laughs at his own expense, Lugo said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was always the outsider,\u201d the detective said. \u201cHe was never part of the crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the gunshot incident, Avalos demanded Velasquez come back to the house and settle their issues with a one-on-one fight. Avalos \u201cpummeled\u201d Velasquez in the frontyard, then hugged him and shook his hand, the detective said. <\/p>\n
The two men ate dinner and drank beer together, the issue seemingly behind them. But as Velasquez left the house, Lugo said, he slammed the door behind him. <\/p>\n
A few hours later, Avalos got a call from Velasquez\u2019s father, according to phone records shown in court. Deputies found Avalos\u2019 blue Toyota 4Runner a few hours later in the city of Commerce. He was parked against traffic with the hood up, as if he was going to give someone a jump start. <\/p>\n
The engine was running; the headlights were still on. Avalos hadn\u2019t even unbuckled his seat belt before someone fired two bullets into his head and chest, according to a coroner\u2019s report. There were no witnesses or surveillance cameras that captured Avalos\u2019 killer. <\/p>\n
But the next killing wasn\u2019t so calculated.<\/p>\n
On July 6, 2015, a year after Avalos was gunned down, Velasquez was hanging out behind an apartment building on Eagle Street with Eduardo Robles and a half-dozen others. <\/p>\n
Robles, 38, confronted Velasquez, accusing him of killing Avalos, his close friend. Witnesses told Lugo that Velasquez scaled a gate and walked to Robles\u2019 GMC Jimmy. He slashed the tires and bent the antenna before running off. <\/p>\n
Five minutes later, a man opened fire from the driveway of the apartment complex, shooting Robles in the back and head. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Eduardo Robles was killed July 6, 2015, in East Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
(Llisel Robles)<\/p>\n
Although several witnesses described to Lugo how Velasquez vandalized Robles\u2019 car, none would identify the shooter, who was so brazen he did not wear a mask, the detective said. <\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the outside, you\u2019re like, \u2018Duh \u2014 if I saw something like that, I\u2019d share that information,\u2019\u201d said Deputy Dist. Atty. Negin Mostadim. But people in the neighborhood were so afraid, they would rather go on living next to a killer than risk informing on one, the prosecutor said. <\/p>\n
It was three years later when the next associate of Velasquez turned up dead.<\/p>\n
In the early morning hours of April 22, 2018, a masked man crept through a homeless encampment outside the courthouse in East Los Angeles. <\/p>\n
He walked slowly, surveillance footage showed, peering into makeshift dwellings before finding what he was looking for inside a yellow and gray tent. The suspect killed Amanda Nicole Lopez, 27, with a blast from his shotgun, according to a coroner\u2019s report. <\/p>\n
Lopez considered Anthony Velasquez a friend, Mostadim said. Velasquez let her take showers at his home, washed her clothes and drove her around. <\/p>\n
But Lopez \u201cwas not interested in him the way he was in her,\u201d Mostadim said. \u201cHe was upset because he was doing so much for her and she wasn\u2019t reciprocating.\u201d <\/p>\n
After Lopez\u2019s death, Lugo was convinced Velasquez was the common denominator between all three homicides, but there wasn\u2019t enough evidence to arrest him. <\/p>\n
Faced with another dead end, Lugo and the Sheriff\u2019s Department went public in 2021. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors offered $80,000 for information about the killings. Deputies posted fliers on telephone poles outside the Velasquez home. They included two sketch portraits that somewhat resembled Velasquez and his father. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Amanda Nicole Lopez, known to family and friends as \u201cNikki,\u201d was shot to death inside a tent in East Los Angeles on April 22, 2018.<\/p>\n
(Rozelle Lopez)<\/p>\n
After two eyewitnesses to the Robles killing came forward, detectives arrested Velasquez and his father on Sept. 23, 2021. <\/p>\n
Both refused to make a statement. Lugo suspected the son was the shooter in all three homicides, but he wanted to hear it from the younger Velasquez himself. <\/p>\n
Lugo and his partner, Det. Leo Sanchez, arranged for Velasquez to be held in a jail cell rigged with hidden microphones.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe needed him to talk,\u201d Lugo said.<\/p>\n
Locked in the cell, Velasquez griped that he was being framed for murder. His two cellmates told him to relax. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou guys seem like good people,\u201d Velasquez said, according to a tape of the conversation that was played in court. <\/p>\n
In fact, they were informants who had been instructed to tease incriminating statements from Velasquez. <\/p>\n
He was charged with three murders, Velasquez said, but \u201cthey don\u2019t know what\u2019s up.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s more murders than that?\u201d an informant asked. <\/p>\n
\u201cMore than fingers I can count,\u201d Velasquez said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
L.A. County sheriff\u2019s deputies take Manuel Velasquez into custody on Sept. 23, 2021.<\/p>\n
(Matthew Ormseth \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
After he killed, \u201cI go to sleep like a baby,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t trip on it. It wasn\u2019t easy at first. The first one, though. Of course my dad is tripping on me, \u2018Are you really like this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Velasquez said his father drove the getaway car in two shootings. It was when they began killing together, Velasquez said, that he started \u201cshowing my dad who I really was.\u201d <\/p>\n
Velasquez said he wanted his victims to know who was killing them. \u201cI gave them my voice before them all,\u201d he said. \u201cI would give them my voice, so they\u2019d know it was me.\u201d <\/p>\n
Velasquez described the steps he took to outsmart the police. He put duct tape on his shoes and tires to obscure footprints or treads. He \u201ctricked out\u201d his guns so they couldn\u2019t leave casings and \u201cchopped\u201d the weapons after using them. He even burned off his fingerprints with a \u201chot butter knife.\u201d <\/p>\n
One of the informants asked about witnesses. \u201cNo one wants to f\u2014ing testify,\u201d Velasquez said. <\/p>\n
The only person who knew all the details, Velasquez said, was his father. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe never included nobody, we never met anybody,\u201d he told the cellmates. \u201cYou know what I mean? We were at home and we stayed home. We never partied, we never went out, nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
After his son\u2019s unwitting confession, Manuel Velasquez pleaded no contest to manslaughter and accessory to murder. He was sentenced in February to serve 11 years and eight months in prison. <\/p>\n
The father was \u201c100% loyal to his son,\u201d said Mariano, the prosecutor. \u201cWhatever his son was doing, he was going to do whatever he could to make sure he wasn\u2019t getting into trouble for it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Last month, a jury convicted Anthony Velasquez of three counts of murder. Before he was sentenced to 150 years to life in prison, relatives of Avalos, Robles and Lopez wept and shouted as they described their loss. Velasquez stared straight ahead, Lugo said. <\/p>\n
Velasquez had railed in the jail recording about the \u201cLieutenant Lugo\u201d who had harassed his family for years. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s pissed because he wants to retire,\u201d Velasquez said of the detective, who has been a sheriff\u2019s deputy for 44 years, \u201cbut he wants to get credit before he retires.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anthony Velasquez\u2019s attorney, Leslie Ann Boyce, said her client maintains his innocence and plans to appeal his conviction.<\/p>\n
Lugo said he knows Velasquez and his family despise him. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s mutual,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Killers lived in the small house nestled between two freeways and a cemetery in East Los Angeles. Ray…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":209974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[94611,1582,276,7726,115226,8761,316,115224,2961,115225,4814,224,2444,5337,115223,9620,115227,8763,15159,1628],"class_list":{"0":"post-209973","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-anthony-velasquez","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-deputy","12":"tag-eduardo-robles","13":"tag-father","14":"tag-home","15":"tag-jesus-avalos","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-longtime-detective","18":"tag-lopez","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-times","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-lugo","23":"tag-murder","24":"tag-small-house","25":"tag-son","26":"tag-witness","27":"tag-year"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115168236450050592","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}