Attorneys plead for Alvarez

LOS ANGELES — Defense attorneys told jurors on Thursday they should not sentence Juan Manuel Alvarez to death, owing mostly to the rabid abuse he experienced as a child and remorse he showed after the incident, exemplified by a phone message that he left for his cousin shortly after the 2005 train wreck.

In a brief message played during the penalty phase in the Los Angeles Superior Court room, a sobbing Alvarez, now 29, told Beto Alvarez: “I didn’t mean to do this, Beto. A lot of innocent people died. I don’t deserve to live, Beto. I apologize for everything.” The recording was made at 6:17 a.m. on Jan. 26, 2005, minutes after the train derailment.

Also on the message, Alvarez told the landlady of his Atwater Village apartment that he wanted to die.

Alvarez was found guilty June 26 for parking his sport utility vehicle on a set of train tracks near Glendale’s Chevy Chase crossing, leading to the catastrophic Metrolink derailment that killed 10 passengers as well as one train conductor and injured more than 180 people.

The nine-woman, three-man panel convicted Alvarez of 11 counts of first-degree murder and one count of arson, along with the special circumstance of multiple murders that opened the door for prosecutors — who objected to the recording being played in court — to seek the death penalty.

“He knows he’s leaving a recorded message,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Cathryn Brougham said.

“It was self-serving. The defense shouldn’t be allowed to get this evidence in because it’s simply not reliable.”

Judge William R. Pounders allowed the message to be played to counter the emotionally charged testimony of dozens of victims’ family members who testified earlier this week, during which many jurors cried.

Pounders said he has presided over nearly 20 death penalty cases, including last year’s trial of serial killer Chester Turner, and “I’ve never been so emotionally affected by evidence. This tends to counteract that to some extent.”

Jurors seemed physically unmoved by the brief recording, which was preceded by defense attorney Michael Belter’s request to the jury that when they deliberate between sentencing Alvarez to death or life without the possibility of parole, they decide rationally and without influence from their peers.