Gang Member Sentenced to Death for Murder, Kidnapping, Other Crimes

A 12th Street gang member convicted of a series of kidnappings and killings in 2009 was sentenced to death, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen imposed the sentence on Robert Louis Caballero, 37. He was the final defendant sentenced in case KA089026. On Aug. 14, 2014, a jury found true special circumstance allegations that Caballero committed multiple murders, that the murders were committed during the course of a kidnapping and that the defendant was able to carry out the killings by lying in wait. The same jury recommended that Caballero receive the death penalty. Deputy District Attorneys Sarika Kim and Robert Serna of the Hardcore Gang Division said Caballero was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping, one count of assault with a firearm, one count of possession of a firearm by a felon and evading an officer, willful disregard. Furthermore, jurors found true gun and gang allegations. Caballero’s co-defendant, Pete Trejo Jr., 32, was found guilty of first-degree murder and kidnapping. Jurors found true gun and gang allegations, as well as the special circumstance allegations of lying in wait and murder during the course of a kidnapping. Andrew Valenzuela, 23, also was convicted of first-degree murder and kidnapping. The jury found true gun and gang allegations, and the special circumstance allegation of murder during the course of a kidnapping. Trejo and Valenzuela were both sentenced in October 2014 to life in state prison without the possibility of parole.