The War on La Familia

Ramona says she couldn't let Yelena go. As Yelena was taken to intensive care, Ramona reminded her daughter that they'd bought the movie Happy Feet earlier that day. She told Yelena that she wanted to watch it with her again. At 2 a.m., the doctors determined that Yelena had fallen into a permanent vegetative state. The family agreed to disconnect the breathing machine. Even then, Ramona hoped for a miracle as they severed life support. But Yelena didn't breathe.

On the day of her burial, Carlos helped Ramona dress Yelena and put make-up on her. She knew he felt guilty for his role in Yelena's slaying, and she told him not to feel bad. But she questioned why he would get caught up in gang violence.

"Why are you fighting for a place that's not ours?" she remembers asking him.

After the shooting, Carlos cooperated with police. He gave them the names of Familia Loca members and said he suspected that Franco and Hernandez were responsible for the shooting. But his rap sheet had grown during 2007. In July, he was in a car with stolen tags that was stopped by Kansas City, Kansas, police. He admitted to the cops that he was still a member of F13. In September, he pleaded guilty to charges of stealing a car in Jackson County, Missouri, and was placed on probation. In November, he was again arrested in Kansas City, Kansas, for domestic battery and assault on a law-enforcement officer. After he cooperated with prosecutors in their investigation of the shooting, the U.S. government deported Carlos to Mexico.

The police put out a pickup order for Franco and Hernandez, but they had already fled. Gang members testified that they believed Hernandez had gone to Mexico. He is still at large.

Franco's girlfriend, Marylin Chavez, says Franco told her, in the days after the shooting, that he wasn't involved. He said he didn't order the shooting. But she tells The Pitch that Franco knew he'd be a suspect because of his affiliation with the gang and his past convictions.

According to juvenile-court records, Franco was convicted on two counts of aggravated robbery and criminal discharge of a firearm into an occupied dwelling in 2003. In 2006, he was charged with aiding a felon. In that case, he drove a getaway car from a drive-by shooting that severely injured two women. His lawyer argued in court documents that Franco didn't know the gunman's intent and, given Franco's juvenile status, deserved a chance at probation. But Franco didn't make any payments toward the $15,000 in restitution he was ordered to pay the two injured women and didn't report to court officers. His probation was revoked.

On July 14, Franco was driving with a cousin when police in Kansas City, Kansas, spotted him. He tried to run, and police say he fired shots at the pursuing officers. On July 16, police charged him with assault on an officer, criminal possession of a firearm and trespassing.

That day, he also met with a homicide detective from Kansas City, Kansas. Franco told her that he knew what happened the night Yelena Guzmán was shot. He said it was Luis Gonzalez who drove and Daniel Perez who pulled the trigger. On July 19, Gonzalez told police that José Franco had given the order.

Before the end of the year, Wyandotte County District Attorney Jerome A. Gorman charged all four teenagers with first-degree murder.

On March 11, 2008, the morning that Daniel Perez began his trial on first-degree murder charges, the courtroom in the Wyandotte County District Court was cold and silent. Prosecutors wheeled in a dolly covered in binders thick with police statements and boxes of evidence sealed in manila envelopes. The Guzmán family lined the front row of the otherwise empty gallery.

Perez looked like a kid who'd been pulled out of class at a prep school. He wore a spotless white dress shirt, black slacks and a blank expression. The 17-year-old, who was being tried as an adult, occasionally scribbled notes on a yellow legal pad as Gonzalez testified against him.

In exchange for testifying against his friends, Gonzalez had agreed to plead guilty to first-degree murder charges in juvenile court; he could serve as much as seven years in detention. On the stand, his collarbone poked through the neckline of his navy detention-center jumpsuit, and the prosecutors had to remind him to speak up. He answered questions: "Yes, sir" and "No, sir." He cocked his head to one side and stole darting glances at Perez. He anxiously clasped and unclasped his hands, rubbing his thumbs into his palms.

In addition to Gonzalez's testimony, prosecutors called Cisneros, who recounted what he had witnessed at Hernandez's house. Cisneros didn't participate in the planning of the shooting and wasn't charged with a crime.

Prosecutors had an interpreter read transcripts of taped phone conversations that Perez made in jail. The teenager spoke often with his mother, discussing the evidence against him and worrying that the testimony against him was strong. In a phone call on December 21, Perez told his mother that praying didn't ease his mind anymore.