Local News in Brief : Suspect Rearrested in Burbank Gang Slaying

Burbank police said Saturday that a 19-year-old man who was arrested last December in the fatal shooting of a 21-year-old gang member has been taken into custody again. The case is believed to be the only gang-related killing in the city in the last five years.

The man, Freddie J. Casillas of Burbank, was arrested at about 7 p.m. Friday at a residence in the 200 block of E. Cedar Street and booked on suspicion of the murder of Juan Ruvalcaba, of Burbank, Lt. Talbert Kanigher said. Ruvalcaba was shot once in the head Dec. 29 while talking to a neighbor outside his home, Kanigher said.

Casillas was arrested with five other men shortly after the killing, but the district attorney’s office at the time refused to press charges against him and two others.

Kanigher said he does not know why Casillas was arrested again, and detectives handling the case were not available for comment Saturday.

Three other suspects have pleaded not guilty in the killing, which is believed to have stemmed from gang members’ belief that Ruvalcaba was crossing out their graffiti, prosecutors have said.

The three--Johnny Martinez Herrera, 21, of Glendale; Rudolfo T. Navarro, 19, of Burbank, and Selso Hernandez Casteneda, 19, of Burbank--are being held in County Jail on $200,000 bail each.