By Linda Deutsch
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — A man who killed 11 people by causing a commuter rail disaster in Glendale faces sentencing, one month after a jury recommended he serve life in prison without the possibility of parole.
During the penalty phase of Juan Alvarez’s trial, jurors cried openly as survivors of the dead came forward to describe the anguish of their losses and the emptiness of their lives since the accident in 2005 robbed them of spouses, sisters, fathers and mothers.
Superior Court Judge William Pounders, who has presided over many high profile trials in a long career on the bench, admitted outside the jury’s presence that he also had been affected by the survivors’ testimony.
“I’ve never been so emotionally affected by evidence,” said Pounders, who does not have the option to increase the penalty to death at the sentencing hearing Wednesday.
The prosecution described Alvarez as a remorseless, smirking defendant who didn’t think of the case as a tragedy.
The defense painted the 29-year-old as a mentally disturbed man who was almost aborted by his mother, was shaped by a childhood of horrific abuse and became a methamphetamine addict. They said he drove his sport utility vehicle on the railroad tracks in a misguided attempt to get the attention of his estranged wife. They said he changed his mind at the last minute but it was too late to get the vehicle off the tracks.
Alvarez took the stand during the trial and apologized. Jurors also heard a breathless, sobbing taped message from the defendant to his cousin shortly after the accident, saying: “A lot of innocent people died. I don’t deserve to live.”
Alvarez parked his gasoline-soaked SUV on railroad tracks, causing the Metrolink train to derail and strike another Metrolink train traveling in the other direction on Jan. 26, 2005. Most of the dead were commuters on their way to work.
The jury foreman said after the verdict that he did not believe Alvarez planned to kill or harm anyone. But he also rejected Alvarez’s explanation that he was trying to commit suicide.
He was found guilty of 11 counts of first-degree murder.