3 gang members get prison for attack on Amtrak engineer
(The following story by Hudson Sangree appeared on the Sacramento Bee website on January 10.)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. Three young men convicted of attacking an Amtrak engineer in West Sacramento and of being members of the Broderick Boys street gang were sentenced Friday in Yolo Superior Court to terms in state prison.
Judge Timothy Fall sentenced Austen Nunes, 19, to nine years. Pauliton Nunes, 20, and Daniel Bonge, 19, were sentenced to eight years, four months, for their roles in the attack, Deputy District Attorney Jay Linden said.
Yolo County jurors convicted the three along with a fourth defendant, Orlando Ramos, 16 in November on gang charges and a variety of other counts. Ramos, who was charged as an adult, will be sentenced in juvenile court.
Austen and Pauliton Nunes were both convicted of attempted voluntary manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon. Jurors found Bonge guilty of 10 felonies, including assault with a deadly weapon. A fifth defendant, Robert Reynolds, 17, was acquitted on all counts.
The case stemmed from an April 16, 2007, incident in which a Capitol Corridor train was pelted by rocks as it slowed near the I Street Bridge in West Sacramento.
Engineer Jacob Keating, 36, testified that he stopped the train and climbed down from the engine to confront the rock throwers. He said he yelled an obscenity and tossed at least one rock back at them.
He said he threw the first punch when one of the teens approached him from behind, holding a rock.
The engineer testified that in the ensuing brawl, he was hit over the head with a vodka bottle and a fire extinguisher. As he tried to escape, attackers demanded his wallet and cell phone, he told jurors.
Defense lawyers said the defendants, who had been drinking beer stolen from a local market, were defending themselves from Keating.
I thought thats what that big red wrench was for! Shit in West Sack a Tomamtos, Chico, Richmond, Oakland, Stockton, or San Jose if there is a bunch of dickheads standing on the tracks the best thing to do is skinnerback. They will move one way on another.
