Jackson Bell
A Glendale city worker told a judge Tuesday that he saw Juan Manuel
Alvarez douse his jeep with a liquid before parking it on the train
tracks the morning of Jan. 26.
Alvarez is accused of causing the train derailment that killed 11
and left nearly 200 injured. His preliminary trial began Tuesday in
Los Angeles Superior Court.
"He was holding the bottle with his right hand and shaking it on
the truck," said Douglas Ross, a Public Works Integrated Waste
Management employee. "I found what he was doing peculiar because it
was raining in the morning.
"He was running around the truck, shaking it. He started on the
roof, went around to the engine part and then around to the other
side."
Prosecutors say Alvarez covered his Jeep Cherokee with gasoline to
maximize the damage. Chemical tests reveal that the jeep was covered
in the flammable liquid, said Debbie Stiver, forensic supervisor for
Glendale police.
Ross testified that the 25-year-old Compton man parked his 1993
Jeep Cherokee on the railroad tracks Jan. 26 between Chevy Chase
Drive and Los Feliz Road. A southbound Metrolink train smashed into
the Jeep, derailed and hit a parked locomotive and a northbound
commuter train.
About a dozen witnesses and experts will testify to determine if
prosecutors have enough evidence to try Alvarez on 11 counts of
murder, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Dixon said. The hearing is expected to
last three days, but it could wrap up as soon as today, Dixon said.
Alvarez is charged with arson and 11 counts of murder with special
circumstances of train wrecking, which makes him eligible for the
death penalty. Prosecutors have not yet decided if they will seek the
death penalty.
Bruce Gray, the engineer who operated the southbound Metrolink
train that collided with the Jeep, described his response once he saw
it on the tracks.
"I stood in the aisle way next to the passengers and told anybody
listening to hang on," Gray said. "It was clear in my mind that we
were going to hit."
"At first, it was like an explosion. I saw people flying around
and pieces of the car coming apart. My back slammed up against the
seat. And as far as what I felt, I felt pain."
Ross said he was stopped on the west side of the Chevy Chase Drive
grate crossing when he saw Alvarez exit his jeep from the
passenger-side door and watch the crash.
"He threw his arms up and dropped to the ground on his knees,"
Ross said. "He then took off running."
Alvarez's legal counsel questioned Ross' ability to see Alvarez's
alleged escape before the collision, since the jeep's passenger side
was facing away from Ross.
"How could you see the doors if you were not standing on that side
and 50 yards away?" defense attorney Arthur Greenspan asked.
"I could see the [jeep's inside] light on and somebody over there
moving," Ross answered. "I couldn't see but could tell."
Glendale police in February said they believed Alvarez's actions
were not an aborted suicide attempt but an attention-grabbing stunt.
His other defense attorney, Eric A. Chase, says investigators'
statements were "not only vicious and callous, but are a reckless
distortion of the facts."
Alvarez is being held in county jail without bail.
* JACKSON BELL covers public safety and courts. He may be reached
at (818) 637-3232 or at jackson.belllatimes.com.
