Juan Manuel Alvarez

LOS ANGELES — More than three years after a train crash near Chevy Chase Drive left 11 passengers dead, prosecutors told a jury Monday that a mentally unstable and drug-addled Juan Manuel Alvarez intentionally caused the fiery crash in an attempt to reconcile with his estranged wife. “He needed to do something big to get her attention,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Cathryn Brougham said during the trial’s first day. “He chose to kill 11 strangers.” Pictures of the wreckage and mangled bodies of the 11 victims were displayed during opening statements as family members of the dead openly wept in the packed Los Angeles courtroom Monday.

LOS ANGELES ? Deputy Dist. Atty. John Monaghan told jurors during closing arguments Wednesday that Juan Manuel Alvarez never intended to commit suicide when he drove his SUV onto train tracks at Chevy Chase Drive, having instead perpetrated the 2005 Metrolink train derailment that killed 11 and injured more than 180 passengers as an attention grabbing . Alvarez is charged with 11 counts of murder with special circumstances and one count each...

LOS ANGELES — A Superior Court judge Wednesday sentenced Juan Manuel Alvarez to serve 11 consecutive life sentences in prison after he was convicted in June for causing a deadly 2005 train derailment in Glendale. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Pounders told Alvarez, 29, that he showed no remorse for his actions in the train derailment, the deadliest train crash in Metrolink’s history. Pounders denied the possibility of parole and sentenced Alvarez to also serve two years in prison for arson.

LOS ANGELES — A rock found near the scene of the 2005 Metrolink train derailment that left 11 people dead and nearly 200 others injured, showed evidence of tire treads. But the treads may not have been from the Jeep Grand Cherokee that Juan Manuel Alvarez drove onto the tracks that day. That assessment, from forensic scientist Bryan Burnett, highlighted the first day of defense attorneys’ witnesses as Alvarez’s team tries to show that Alvarez attempted to reverse off the tracks minutes before an oncoming commuter train hit his SUV. “In my opinion that material, which I extracted from the rock . .

LOS ANGELES — Closing arguments continued for a third day Monday as the prosecution and defense drew one step closer to handing the case over to jurors who will soon be asked to decide the fate of Juan Manuel Alvarez. Alvarez is charged with 11 counts of murder and one count each of felony murder arson and train-wrecking for causing the Jan. 26, 2005, Metrolink train derailment that killed 11 people and left more than 180 injured when he parked his Jeep Cherokee on the tracks in front of an oncoming train.

New counsel in Metrolink case A Superior Court judge appointed a new attorney for the man accused of causing the deadly Jan. 26, 2005, Metrolink crash on Wednesday, court officials said. Juan Manuel Alvarez is charged with 11 counts of murder with special circumstances and arson. Los Angeles attorney Norman Kallen will be Alvarez's new private counsel, a Los Angeles Superior Court clerk said. This is the third attorney Alvarez has had. His first lawyer, Eric A. Chase, had to step down from the case because as a pro-bono lawyer he did not have the resources to work a death penalty case, which the special circumstances designation in the charges allows for. County public defenders Rose Reglos and Luis J. Rodriguez took over the case at the end of September, but also had to drop the case because of what they called a conflict of interest.

Efforts to appoint a new lawyer for Juan Manuel Alvarez, accused of 11 counts of murder in connection with the January Metrolink train derailment, were postponed Wednesday until Sept. 27, according to a Los Angeles court clerk. Prosecutors announced Friday that they would seek the death penalty against the 25-year-old construction worker from Compton, who is also charged with arson. Alvarez allegedly parked his 1993 Jeep Cherokee on the train tracks near Chevy Chase Drive and doused it with gasoline, causing the three-train wreck Jan. 26 that killed 11 people and injured nearly 200 others.

A state appellate court panel has upheld the conviction of a man who caused the deadly Metrolink train derailment in 2005 in Glendale. A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury convicted Juan Manuel Alvarez in 2008 of 11 counts of first-degree murder and one count of arson for drenching his Jeep Cherokee with gasoline and parking it on the train tracks near the border with Atwater in January 2005, causing the massive derailment. Eleven people died and nearly 200 were injured.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors disclosed its final approval of a settlement reached between the county and Metrolink over liability stemming from the January 2005 train derailment in Glendale. Board members unanimously approved the settlement in closed session on July 13, but made it public Tuesday during their regular meeting. As part of the settlement, the county agreed to pay Metrolink $500,000 to help cover some of the costs of defending itself against a liability lawsuit.

GLENDALE — Metrolink has agreed to pay roughly $39 million to settle all but one of the lawsuits filed against the agency in the aftermath of a January 2005 derailment that killed 11 passengers on the Glendale border, an attorney for the plaintiffs said Wednesday. Of the 186 complaints filed against the agency in the wake of the accident, all but one of the suits have been resolved, said Jerome Ringler, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs. All 11 wrongful death lawsuits have been settled and 15 of the 16 serious injury lawsuits have been resolved.

LOS ANGELES — A Superior Court judge and attorneys Tuesday went over the language in a jury statement that will be read to potential jurors as they prepare for the trial in a class-action lawsuit regarding the January 2005 Metrolink train derailment in Glendale that killed 11 people. Judge Emilie Elias will read the statement, which briefly explains the case and role of a jury, to potential jurors at the June 8 jury selection hearing at Central Civil West Court. Attorneys representing Metrolink and those representing the victims of the derailment argued about whether language in the statement should say that Juan Manuel Alvarez was convicted of first-degree murder or just murder.

LOS ANGELES — A Superior Court judge Wednesday sentenced Juan Manuel Alvarez to serve 11 consecutive life sentences in prison after he was convicted in June for causing a deadly 2005 train derailment in Glendale. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Pounders told Alvarez, 29, that he showed no remorse for his actions in the train derailment, the deadliest train crash in Metrolink’s history. Pounders denied the possibility of parole and sentenced Alvarez to also serve two years in prison for arson.

Family members of the 11 people killed in the 2005 Metrolink train derailment no longer need to wonder what will happen to the man who caused it. Juan Manuel Alvarez was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for parking his sport utility vehicle on the tracks and causing the worst wreck in Metrolink history. Many people, including the prosecution, thought Alvarez should be put to death, but the real comfort for victims? families and the community is that it?

LOS ANGELES — Jurors on Tuesday ruled that Juan Manuel Alvarez should spend the rest of his life in prison, forgoing a death sentence for his role in a deadly 2005 train derailment. Alvarez, 29, smiled after Court Clerk Alberta Jordan read the verdict from the nine-woman, three-man panel that on June 26 found the former construction worker guilty of 11 counts of first-degree murder and one count of arson. Jurors took less than four hours to return the sentence, which precludes Alvarez from seeking parole.

NORTHWEST GLENDALE — Jurors on Wednesday visited the mangled wreckage and charred remains of four Metrolink train cars at the heart of the case against Juan Manuel Alvarez, as the penalty phase against the day laborer continued for a third day. The viewing was proposed by prosecutors who wanted to give jurors a more intimate look at the damaged train cars that they heard about during the eight-week trial, officials said. Alvarez, who opted to remain in his Men’s County Jail cell in Los Angeles during the jury viewing, was convicted of 11 counts of first-degree murder on June 26 for parking his Jeep Cherokee on a set of Metrolink tracks 125 feet from the Chevy Chase Drive crossing in Glendale.