According to the Orange County District Attorney's Office, a lot of people with blood on their hands have been passing through Santa Ana courtrooms this week.
Besides Rodney Alcala (or Marvin V. Smith, over at the appeals court in Santa Ana), there are these suspects and convicted killers:
* Cuong Viet Nguyen, 29, formerly of Garden Grove and an America's Most Wanted fugitive, who went on trial this morning for allegedly murdering a man in 2005 by shooting him several times outside All Star Bar in Stanton after attacking him with a belt. Nguyen, who has a prior strike conviction from a 1998 robbery, could get up to 144 years to life in state prison if convicted.
* Franco Edgar Neftali, 44, of Santa Ana, who was convicted Tuesday of shooting and murdering a 67-year-old man on Jan. 11, 2007, after becoming angry about losing hundreds of dollars gambling at the apartment complex where the killer worked as maintenance man. He faces up to 50 years to life in prison at his May 7 sentencing.
* Victor John Disalvo, 42, of Garden Grove, who was convicted Monday of the Christmas Eve 2008 shooting-murder of his wife's ex-boyfriend. Rosie Disalvo dated Jorge Diaz while divorced from her husband, who she re-married a year later. Disalvo brought his wife and a shotgun with him to Diaz's Santa Ana apartment, where he fired once, spraying the face and stomach of the victim, who died instantly. Disalvo could get up to 50 years to life in prison at his April 30 sentencing.
* Rigoberto Mendozamora, 20, of San Juan Capistrano, who has been charged with killing one friend and injuring another early Sunday after driving drunk and losing control of his Honda sedan, which crashed into a tree. Charged Tuesday with one felony count of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence while intoxicated with a sentencing enhancement allegation for causing bodily injury to an additional victim, Mendozamora faces up to 11 years in prison if convicted.
On behalf of the victims of these and other crimes, District Attorney Tony Rackauckas leads the second annual Victims' Rights March and Rally on April 20.
The event, which is sponsored by the Orange County Board of Supervisors and Community Service Programs, Inc., begins with a 9:30 a.m. reception at the DA's Office, 401 Civic Center Drive West, Santa Ana.
From there, participants will march at 10:30 a.m. to the Old Orange County Courthouse, 211 W. Santa Ana Blvd., Santa Ana, where a rally starts at 11 a.m.
See a moving slideshow of last year's event here.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.