兇殺案四年未破 兇手將場景紋身在胸口被抓
The process was routine. L.A. County Sheriff's homicide investigator Kevin Lloyd was flipping through snapshots of tattooed gang one caught his attention.
Inked on the pudgy chest of a young Pico Rivera gangster who had been picked up and released on a minor offense was the scene of a 2004 liquor store slaying that had stumped Lloyd for more than four years.
Each key detail was right there: the Christmas lights that lined the roof of the liquor store where 23-year-old John Juarez was gunned down, the direction his body fell, the bowed street lamp across the way and the street sign — all under the chilling banner of RIVERA KILLS, a reference to the gang Rivera-13.
As if to seal the deal, below the collarbone of the gang member known by the alias "Chopper" was a miniature helicopter raining down bullets on the scene.
Lloyd's discovery of the tattoo in 2008 launched a bizarre investigation that soon led to Anthony Garcia's arrest for the shooting. Then sheriff's detectives, posing as gang members, began talking to Garcia, 25, in his holding cell. They got a confession that this week led to a first-degree murder conviction in a killing investigators had once all but given up hope of solving.
For Lloyd, the image on the chest of the delicate, doe-eyed gang member brought back a rush of memories. The snapshot was taken inside the sheriff's Pico Rivera station after Garcia was arrested in a routine traffic stop and booked on suspicion of driving with a suspended license.
Before they are released, suspected gang members typically are asked to remove their shirts and have their tattoos photographed by graffiti team deputies. Taggers often mark their own bodies with the same signatures they spray on buses and storefronts — and eyewitnesses to crimes sometimes help close cases by recalling distinctive tattoos.
Homicide Lt. Dave Dolson said gang members frequently get symbolic tattoos to bolster their street cred: three dots on the hand to signify "mi vida loca" ("my crazy life"), sketches of prisons where they've done time, gang insignia prominently stenciled on their heads and torsos.
2008年，洛杉磯負責謀殺案件的探員凱文·洛依德（Kevin Lloyd）在翻閱當地一羣黑幫分子的紋身照片，一名隸屬於Pico Rivera幫派的年輕男子引起了他的注意：
安東尼·加西亞（Anthony Garcia）胸口上的紋身描繪的是洛依德四年前接手而一直沒有線索的酒類專賣店槍殺案現場……店牌上標着“LIQUOR”（酒、酒精）、天花板上有聖誕節的燈裝飾、店外的路燈，以及被害者的屍體，上方寫着大大的“RIVERA KILLS”，旁邊更有一架武裝直升機在開火——加西亞在幫派中的外號是“Chopper”，既指斧頭，也可以指直升機。紋身上的圖案，正是他引以爲豪的殺人經歷。
警方表示，許多幫派分子都會將自己的“身份”和“成就”作爲紋身的一部分，因此從很早以前他們就開始讓每個因爲各種小事而被送入警局的犯人脫去上衣、將紋身拍照備案。然而，真的把兇殺案的場景紋在身上，這樣的事情還是聞所未聞。
加西亞是在2008年因爲無照駕駛而被拘留並拍下照片。洛依德很快憑藉這一新證據開始了調查並最終將加西亞緝拿歸案、收押入牢。然後一名警員假扮爲Rivera的幫派成員、被“關進”了加西亞的牢房，在一番攀談後，加西亞開始添油加醋地講述自己在當時是如何殺的人，——這段話被偷偷錄下併成爲呈堂證供，就在本週，加西亞的一級謀殺罪罪名成立。
警方說加西亞的紋身絕非一時衝動，多年來的照片表明他一直在“完善”這塊圖案，假如不是年曾負責相關案件的洛依德見到這一紋身，恐怕他還將逍遙法外很久很久。
