Antonio Rodgers-Alcala, the young man accused of killing 18-year-old Damien Gonzalez at the Mission Recreation Center, was in court today on charges related to an armed robbery that took place two months before the August killing.
At today’s hearing on the June 3 robbery, Rodgers-Alcala’s attorney, Lawrence Strauss, withdrew a motion filed earlier to reduce his five felony charges from the burglary case to misdemeanors. Rodgers-Alcala was arrested for murder on Dec. 28.
Rodgers-Alcala had been arrested along with three juveniles after they were caught in the act of breaking into cars around Telegraph Hill. All but one were armed, court filings allege.
He was charged with multiple felonies for that incident, including second-degree burglary, vandalism, carrying a concealed weapon, and carrying an unregistered loaded gun.
In the robbery case, Rodgers-Alcala was deemed ineligible for young-adult court, which would have required frequent check-ins with supervisors and regular court appearances.
“The judge didn’t think he needed that structure,” said Strauss, Rodgers-Alcala’s attorney in an interview. “He’s a good kid, right? … He didn’t meet the service needs, because he was such a lightweight.”
At the time of the Gonzalez murder, Rodgers-Alcala was out on bail, awaiting his preliminary hearing on the burglary case. Just two days before he was arrested for murder, his defense attorney filed a motion requesting to reduce Rodgers-Alcala’s charges, saying he exhibited the “hallmark features of youth” — poor judgment, impulsivity, recklessness — and wanted to “focus on rehabilitation by working and being a law-abiding citizen.”
Gonzalez was shot and killed on Aug. 18 on the second floor of the Mission gym, as he was in the basketball court with friends from John O’Connell High School, located around the corner.
Rodgers-Alcala shot Gonzalez five times at close range in front of three witnesses, prosecutors allege, and was then seen on surveillance camera being picked up two blocks away by his mother. Upon his arrest last month, police allegedly found another gun in his bedroom.
Strauss said that Rodgers-Alcala had been attending a youth employment program at New Door Ventures, a nonprofit located just around the corner from the recreation center, where his mother would drop him off and pick him up.
Gonzalez was an up-and-coming presence in the Mission District when he was killed — involved with the Latino Task Force and various other Mission community groups. He was had launched a clothing brand and was expecting a child with his girlfriend. She gave birth in October, two months after his killing.
Filings from the District Attorney’s Office called Gonzalez’s killing a “callous murder,” and said Rodgers-Alcala “demonstrated an escalation of violent behavior and brazenly committed this crime at a Recreation Center basketball court.”
The classic, “he was a good kid, in the process of turning his life around.”
He sounds nice.