A judge sentenced a man convicted of causing a deadly commuter rail crash to 11 consecutive life terms on Wednesday after denouncing him as a remorseless killer.
Superior Court Judge William Pounders said he would have imposed a sentence of "forever" on Juan Alvarez, if it was possible. Alvarez will not be eligible for parole.
Alvarez, 29, parked his gasoline-soaked SUV on railroad tracks in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale, causing the Metrolink train to derail and strike another Metrolink train traveling in the other direction on Jan. 26, 2005. Eleven people died and about 180 were injured.
Pounders spoke of the excruciating suffering of the survivors, and many of them came forward to speak through tears about their lost relatives and the way the crash had changed their lives.
Some demanded that Alvarez, seated at the counsel table facing the judge, turn and look them in the eye as they told him of the havoc he had wrought on their lives.
"Please look at me so you can understand the pain you caused," said Elaine Sievers, sister of victim William Parent,53. "You did a very bad and stupid thing."
She added: "What you have done has affected every aspect of my life. I tend to stay indoors. I'm afraid of people like you out on the streets."
Alvarez obliged some of the speakers. In some cases, he shook his head when they asked him for a response.
A few said they were trying to forgive him. Most said they could not.
"I wish you the most miserable life possible," said Henry Romero, nephew of 53-year-old victim Leonardo Romero.
"Who knows if God will forgive you? I can't," said Hope Alcala, mother of Manuel Alcala,51. "I hope someday, you can forgive yourself because I can't."
Alvarez was sentenced a month after a jury recommended he serve life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Pounders, who has presided over many high profile trials in a long career on the bench, previously admitted outside the jury's presence that he also had been affected by the survivors' testimony.
In sentencing Alvarez, he said he didn't believe his claim that he wanted to kill himself, and in the three-month trial never saw him show remorse.
"I don't believe you have sympathy for those you killed," Pounders told Alvarez who sat shackled before him, clad in an orange jail uniform, his hair newly cropped close to his head and a tattoo on the back of his neck.
"If there was a sentence known as forever in state prison, I would give it to you," the judge said.
The prosecution characterized Alvarez as a smirking defendant who didn't think of the case as a tragedy.
The defense painted Alvarez as a mentally disturbed man who was almost aborted by his mother, was shaped by a childhood of horrific abuse and became a methamphetamine addict.
They said he drove his sport utility vehicle on the railroad tracks in an attempt to commit suicide but changed his mind at the last minute, when it was too late to get the vehicle off the tracks.
Alvarez took the stand during the trial and apologized.
Jurors also heard a breathless, sobbing taped message from the defendant to his cousin shortly after the accident, saying: "I didn't mean to do this. ... A lot of innocent people died. I don't deserve to live. ... I apologize for everything. Please pray for me, please."
The jury foreman said after the verdict that he did not believe Alvarez planned to kill or harm anyone. But he also rejected Alvarez's explanation that he was trying to commit suicide.
