eMe Hit?- Pomona 12th Street-Valentino Arenas

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eMe Hit?- Pomona 12th Street-Valentino Arenas

Unread post by stamps » March 7th, 2008, 11:13 am

I cant post in other forum area...but Valentino Arenas was murdered in Corcoran. Adios Arenas.

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Re: eMe Hit?- Pomona 12th Street-Valentino Arenas

Unread post by VALERO » March 7th, 2008, 2:46 pm

stamps wrote:I cant post in other forum area...but Valentino Arenas was murdered in Corcoran. Adios Arenas.
Was this the 16 year old kid who killed that cop?

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Unread post by Common Sense » March 7th, 2008, 5:29 pm

Is there an article?

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Unread post by stamps » March 10th, 2008, 5:02 pm

Sorry, no article,,but yes..he was murdered after being transfered to state prison from CYA. Apparently the eMe wan't cool with his attempt to bolster his gang and gang's rep by killing a cop. Maybe too much heat came down on 12th Street.

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Unread post by Common Sense » March 10th, 2008, 8:30 pm

This is an old article about theis kid and his family.

A WAY OF DEATH GANGS, COPS, LIFE ON POMONA 12TH ST.

POMONA Sitting in a folding chair in front of her home just hours after her nephew was arrested on suspicion of murdering a highway patrol officer, Cecelia Arenas scowled as she rolled a cigarette.

All morning, she had been surrounded by sheriff's deputies and undercover police armed with assault rifles, as they searched the guest house, where she lives, and the main house, where her nephew, Valentino Mitchell Arenas, was born 16 years ago into a family with a history of gang ties.

As she finished rolling her cigarette, a small tattoo could be seen on her left hand - ``P12'' for Pomona 12th Street, one of the area's oldest and most dangerous gangs.

``A cop,'' she said. ``I don't know what he was thinking. I can't believe he shot a cop.''

Police arrested Valentino Mitchell Arenas, known by family members as ``Little Junior,'' less than 12 hours after investigators say he gunned down California Highway Patrol Officer Thomas Steiner outside a courthouse in Pomona.

He did it, police say, because he wanted to impress 12th Street gang members who had refused to let him into the gang.

Friends and family aren't so sure why he might have done it. Some say he was already a member of the gang. Others simply can't imagine what might have prompted him to commit such a crime.

``I don't know what to say,'' Cecelia Arenas said. ``It doesn't seem real. His life is over. The cop's family and our family will be changed. Nothing will be the same.''

Friends describe Valentino Arenas as a lonely kid, nicknamed ``Yogi,'' and often teased because of his weight.

As a student, he was often in trouble, bounced back and forth between Pomona Unified School District campuses for threatening students, bringing weapons to school and other offenses.

His father and other relatives are gang members, but his mother was desperate to keep him out.

She enrolled him in a gang-prevention program, pleading with counselors to help her keep him out of gangs, but last year, he was dropped from the program when funding ran low.

On April 21, Arenas took his mother's car, a red Nissan Sentra, and drove to the Superior Court building in Pomona.

There, he saw Steiner, a five-year veteran of the California Highway Patrol, a married man with two children.

Steiner had just left the courthouse after testifying in a traffic case and was walking to his car.

Someone yelled, ``12th Street,'' according to a courthouse worker. And then three to five shots rang out. One bullet hit Steiner in the head.

Police say Arenas pulled up in front of the courthouse, jumped out of his mother's car and opened fire. Then he got back in the car and sped away.

Steiner was pronounced dead four hours later at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, family members at his bedside.

The red Nissan was found three blocks from the courthouse within two hours of the shooting, and Arenas' father, Valentino Arenas Jr., was arrested that night in his Fontana neighborhood on probation violation, for carrying a false ID. He was on parole for attempted robbery and suspected in a March 12 bank robbery.

Shortly before 3 a.m. the next morning, the teenage suspect was in custody.

Heartbroken, the family patriarch, Valentino Arenas Sr., stood in front of the family's Pomona home last week, waving his arms and shouting, ``Leave us alone.''

Then he stopped and grew quiet.

``He's a good kid,'' he said as he unlocked the padded gate to the back yard. ``I know that, but what does it matter now? It just doesn't matter anymore.''

Valentino Mitchell Arenas was born on March 18, 1988, in an old stucco house on Ninth Street in Pomona, the heart of Pomona 12th Street territory.

His Aunt Cecelia said he had to grow up fast. He had to become the man of the house. His father was in jail.

``He had to help support the family,'' she said. ``He always wanted to be in construction just like his father and grandfather.''

Friends remembered how he would buy diapers for his 16-year-old sister's baby.

``He really cared about his family and friends,'' said 17-year-old Jamie Ruiz, a close friend who lives not far from his aunt's home. ``He left school all the time to work construction with his father and grandfather so he could help out his sister.''

Recently paroled herself, Cecelia Arenas also belonged to Pomona 12th Street. Inside her pistachio-painted home, the walls are decorated with pictures of her children, some of them making gang signs with their hands.

Gangs are a way of life in the neighborhood.

``It's just something that every kid in Pomona grows up with,'' Ruiz said. ``We all have family in gangs, but it doesn't always mean we're part of a gang. Some kids join, and some don't.''

Everyone who grows up near 12th Street knows somebody or has somebody in his or her family that's in a gang, said 16-year-old Lydia Martinez, a former girlfriend of Valentino Arenas.

``It's life here,'' she said. ``They always want to make us look bad, but when my brother was killed, the cops only looked for his killer for a day, and then they forgot all about him. I think I saw one helicopter search for my brother's killer. I counted more than six the day the cop was shot.''

Martinez's brother, 24-year-old Jason, was killed by a rival gang in Pomona two years ago.

Ruiz and Martinez have written Arenas letters in jail and say they will stand by his side now as they have in the past.

Katherine Shone, a special education teacher at Lorbeer Junior High School in Diamond Bar, remembers Arenas as a troubled youth who had difficulty in school and problems at home.

``He came to my class like many of the kids that get transferred to my class - because he was either having problems at school or because his grades were failing,'' Shone said. ``He loved art. I recall how happy he was when he won (an) art contest and all the kids in class were congratulating him, and for once in his life he was somebody special.''

A longtime friend, who, fearing for his own safety, spoke on condition of anonymity, said Arenas was often picked on in junior high because of his weight and how in turn he often tangled with black students.

``I remember Yogi got in three big fights with the black kids on campus,'' the friend said. ``They were mostly talk, but it got out of control and then Yogi threatened that he was going to shoot one of the guys.''

School district documents show Arenas had a history of trouble at school.

Arenas threatened in October 2002 to shoot a fellow student at Diamond Ranch High School.

George Fullerton, a high school disciplinarian, signed an order to transfer Arenas to Garey High School.

An employee at Garey High School said Arenas had been in trouble just weeks before Steiner's shooting for bringing a weapon on campus.

Arenas was suspended, the employee said, but not expelled.

School officials declined to comment, citing privacy rights.

In her dark blue room with stars on the door, Ruiz and two friends sat on her daybed, talking about Arenas. Amid a long row of photos taped to a wall is a picture of Arenas and Martinez smiling. They're at their favorite pit stop, Jack in the Box.

``When my friend Javie got shot by a cop, nobody did anything,'' Ruiz said. ``We just get used to it. It's a part of life. But when the cop got shot by Yogi, everybody went crazy. I've never seen anybody get crazy like that when one of us gets killed here.''

In January, Pomona police shot and killed 19-year-old Javier Beas, a 12th Street gang member and Arenas' friend.

Police said they found a group of men standing at the curb when they arrived to investigate a report of a man with a gun. Beas ran, and, as officers gave chase, he pulled a gun. The officers fired, killing him.

``But I don't think he shot the cop because of him,`` Ruiz said. ``Nobody knows why he shot the cop. I think he should plead insanity because he just snapped.''

Ruiz's room is a haven, she says, a safe place in an unsafe town.

``Everybody in Pomona packs a gun. You can pick a gun up anywhere. It doesn't surprise me that Yogi had a gun. ... We have to stick together because we protect each other. Nobody else will.''

And that's why they will remain loyal to Arenas.

``He'll never come out of prison,'' Martinez said. ``He'll be there for the rest of his life. But we don't want him to forget that we'll support him.''

After Arenas pleaded not guilty last Thursday to murder charges that could lead to life imprisonment without parole, Ruiz stood alone outside the courthouse, less than a block from where Steiner was gunned down.

Police stared at her from vehicles across the street.

Television crews walked past her to interview prosecutors and other officials.

A few of Arenas' friends made their way out of the courthouse and disappeared onto the streets of Pomona.

``It's funny,'' Ruiz said. ``Everybody acts like they know what happened, like they know Yogi. Nobody cared about him before. All they want to do is make this go away. But it's been going on forever and nobody cared until now.''
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/A+WAY+OF+ ... 0116429019

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Unread post by Common Sense » March 10th, 2008, 8:41 pm

Possible connection???

Mexican Mafia Members Arrested for Murder Conspiracy in L.A.

By Jim Kouri
May 4, 2006

A California task force investigation into a Pomona area street gang following the murder of a California Highway Patrol Officer two years ago resulted today in conspiracy to commit murder charges filed against four men accused in an alleged Mexican Mafia contract murder.

The targeted victim survived last summer’s planned killing, in large part due to intervention by officers involved in the undercover investigation, authorities said.

Charges were filed against Darryl Castrejon, 46; Arthur Garcia, 35; Julio Ponce Felix Jr.; and Ricardo Polanco, 23. Arraignment is scheduled for at least Castrejon and Garcia for Friday in Pomona Superior Court. Both men were arrested on Friday. Felix and Polanco, already in custody on unrelated cases, may be arraigned later in the week.

The case was one of nearly a dozen filed in connection with what started out as an investigation of the 12th Street gang in Pomona following the murder of CHP Officer Thomas Steiner on April 21, 2004. Steiner, 35, was gunned down outside the Pomona courthouse by 16-year-old Valentino Mitchell Arenas, of Fontana and Pomona.

Arenas, a 12th Street gang wannabe, later pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and admitted the special circumstances of murder of a police officer, lying in wait and murder during a drive-by shooting. Arenas, now 18, was sentenced to spend the remainder of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

After Steiner’s murder, the Los Angeles Interagency Metropolitan Police Apprehension Crime Task Force (LA IMPACT), moved in to investigate the 12th Street gang. The investigation focused on alleged drug-dealing by gang members. The alleged Mexican Mafia contract killing was uncovered as a result of surveillance during the lengthy investigation.

The alleged shooter, Polanco, was arrested in July of last year as he was on his way to kill the victim, according to the overt acts listed in the criminal complaint. He was arrested by Pomona police about five blocks away from the home of the alleged intended victim. The defendant was armed with a .38-caliber handgun at the time he was taken into custody.

Deputy District Attorney Ricardo Ocampo of the Major Crimes Division is prosecuting the case.

The other cases filed against alleged members of the 12th Street gang charge conspiracy and narcotics violations. Those are being prosecuted out of the Pomona Branch office by Deputy District Attorneys Manuel Garcia and Michael Cabral.

The investigation and resulting cases were announced this afternoon at a Pomona news conference by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley, the CHP, the Pomona Police Department and members of LA IMPACT.

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Unread post by rocstar » March 10th, 2008, 10:14 pm

If he would have got killed it would have been in the news. Everything that happens in high profile cases is reported. No reports of it anywhere.

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Unread post by Common Sense » March 11th, 2008, 12:38 am

rocstar wrote:No reports of it anywhere.
I haven't been able to find it either.

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Unread post by stamps » March 11th, 2008, 2:44 pm

Well I apologize for the false information. There was some information shared by a credible prison organization, which reported this as confirmed. It wasn't a news organization so I couldn't share an article,,but the correct info is that, although Arenas is PC'd and has had some threats..they recanted and reported that he is still alive....my bad

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Unread post by Common Sense » March 11th, 2008, 4:27 pm

stamps wrote:although Arenas is PC'd and has had some threats..they recanted and reported that he is still alive....my bad
No biggie..... I was wondering recently how he was fairing in prison anyway. Seems like not to well. The trouble he may be in with La Eme, your article may get posted in the near future fterall.

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Unread post by stamps » March 12th, 2008, 10:05 am

I guess time will tell..and there is plenty of time he has to wait around.

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Unread post by tecate » March 14th, 2008, 9:10 am

Damn, dude just threw his life away, I'm sure tho CO's have no kinda love for him either.

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Unread post by junta » March 15th, 2008, 9:01 pm

tecate wrote:Damn, dude just threw his life away, I'm sure tho CO's have no kinda love for him either.
Yeah, I bet the guards where he is at will set his ass up for a beatdown or something worse. He deserves it anyway.

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Re: eMe Hit?- Pomona 12th Street-Valentino Arenas

Unread post by LAResident » March 15th, 2019, 8:38 pm

I heard from a very reliable source that he locked it to...

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