(The following appeared on the Sacramento Bee website on October 14.)
WOODLAND, Calif. — Prosecution and defense lawyers offered very different versions of events the night in April 2007 when an Amtrak train engineer was severely beaten by a group of teenagers in West Sacramento.
At a trial that began Tuesday in Yolo Superior Court, Deputy District Attorney Jay Linden said the teens, ages 14 to 18, threw rocks at a slow-moving Capitol Corridor train. When the engineer stopped the strain and confronted them, one of the young men approached him from behind in a threatening manner, Linden said.
Fearing for his safety the engineer punched the teen, Linden said. The other teens joined the fray, hitting the engineer in the head with the train’s fire extinguisher and demanding his wallet, Linden said.
Linden said all five defendants were members of the Broderick Boys street gang.
Defense lawyer offered a different scenario. They admitted that the teens were drinking beer stolen from a local market and that the teens had thrown rocks at the train as it traveled toward the I Street Bridge in West Sacramento.
But they said the fight was started by the train crew and the teens were defending themselves.
The defendants are Orlando Javier Ramos, Robert James Reynolds, Austen Nunes, Pauliton Ricardo Nunes and Daniel Bonje.
They were charged as adults with attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and attempted robbery.