Teen pleads guilty in soccer-field slaying

Bill Gang

Friday, Sept. 4, 1998 | 2:37 a.m.

Eighteen-year-old Joshua "Boomer" Muniz sobbed in court today as he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the slaying of another teenager who was playing soccer with friends at Lorenzi Park.

Muniz, who claimed he was only the lookout and not the gunman in the gang-related incident, will be spending at least the next 20 years behind bars before eligibility for parole as a result of the plea bargain.

He could have been sentenced to twice that if he had gone to trial and been convicted of first-degree murder. Formal sentencing will be on Oct. 14 in District Judge Donald Mosley's courtroom.

Witnesses to the May incident have said that few words were exchanged between rival gangs before Marco Valadez was gunned down. The victim was an 18-year-old senior at Western High School.

The witnesses, most of whom were admitted members of Pamona Sur Locotes, or PSL -- a Pamona, Calif.-based gang -- testified at a trial earlier this year that Muniz was the man who pulled a .45-caliber pistol and opened fire after uttering a derogatory gang phrase.

They explained that they knew Muniz because he had been a member of the PSL until he defected to a branch of the 18th Street Gang, which has its roots in Los Angeles. That gang gained some notoriety recently because one of its members was shot to death by off duty Metro Police Officer Ron Mortensen, who subsequently was convicted of murder.

Deputy District Attorney Victoria Villegas said after the earlier hearing that the two gangs are rivals and the way "to move up from a peewee to a soldier" is to commit a violent act against a perceived enemy.

"And there is no better way to show you are not a PSL any longer than to kill a PSL," Villegas said, noting that Muniz now has a large tattoo on the back of his neck reading "ES 18 ST," for Eastside 18th Street branch.

Although the victim, Valadez, was not identified as a gang member, his friends admitted he did associate with PSL members.

The victim's 12-year-old brother, Ernesto Valadez, said he also was playing soccer at the park on Washington Avenue near Rancho Drive when the men known to be 18th Street Gang members walked up.

He said he heard seven or eight shots and ran to where his brother had fallen face down with three bullets in his back.