Alvarez found guilty of murder

Prosecutors said Alvarez was not suicidal, and that his intention that morning was to grab his wife’s attention. Dist. Atty. John Monaghan told jurors during closing arguments last week that Alvarez doused his car in gasoline to purposefully ignite a blaze, asking, “If you’re going to set yourself on fire, why waste gasoline putting it all over the vehicle?”

Jurors apparently agreed, finding that Alvarez “did willfully, unlawfully and maliciously set fire to his personal property, resulting in the burning of another’s personal property.”

Jubilant family members outside the courtroom said they were pleased with the verdict but divided on whether Alvarez should be put to death, exemplified by the family of Leonard Romero, who was killed in the 2005 crash.

“I’m very angry with [Alvarez], but I don’t think he should get the death penalty,” his nephew Alberto Romero said. “We’re nobody to decide who lives and who dies. He should think about this each and every day of his life. God may forgive him, but I don’t.”

A few feet away, Miguel A. Romero, Leonard Romero’s brother, a mainstay in the courtroom during the eight-week trial, said he usually does not favor death sentences but made an exception for Alvarez.

“I’m usually a Catholic — we don’t like the death penalty — but he killed 11 people,” he said. “This case is different.”

Others said the severity of the sentence is not the main issue.

“This has been really hard for us,” said Susan McKeoun, widow of Scott McKeoun, a passenger on train No. 100 and former Glendale city employee. “I don’t care if he gets the death penalty or lives, as long as he’s off the street.”

As victims’ family members celebrated the verdict, Alvarez’s sister and cousin quietly avoided the media frenzy by slipping behind the Criminal Courts Building in Downtown Los Angeles toward their car.

“We’re all a little disappointed,” said Alvarez’s cousin, Beto Alvarez. “I didn’t expect any better, but murder, I don’t think he murdered anyone. We would have lived with anything but the murder [charges].”

 JEREMY OBERSTEIN covers business, politics and the foothills. He may be reached at (818) 637-3215 or by e-mail at jeremy.oberstein@latimes.com.