Driver Guilty of Murder in Theater Slaying

A man accused of being a getaway driver was convicted of first-degree murder Friday in the fatal shooting of a movie theater security guard in Orange last year.

Rafael A. Maldonado, 22, of Santa Ana bowed his head and appeared distraught as jurors delivered the verdict after about three hours of deliberations. Maldonado faces up to 25 years to life in state prison when he is sentenced Jan. 12 by Orange County Superior Court Judge Kathleen E. O’Leary.

Maldonado was accused of dropping off the shooter, Jerry Lee Alonzo Jr., and then picking him up after the Feb. 19, 1994, cinema slaying. Alonzo has been convicted and sentenced to life without possibility of parole.

Dagoberto R. Carrero, 23, was working his last shift as a security guard at the Century City Centre Theater when he was shot twice in the face and back. A former Marine and Gulf War veteran, Carrero had made plans to travel to Texas the next day for Air National Guard training.

Authorities said Alonzo killed Carrero in anger over a previous encounter.

Dennis O’Connell, Maldonado’s attorney, argued that his client sought to dissuade Alonzo from harming Carrero and even returned to the theater to try and talk him out of any violence. O’Connell said Maldonado was being punished for trying to intercede.

“If somebody is trying to talk somebody out of a crime, how can they be guilty of a crime?” O’Connell said after the verdict.

But Deputy District Atty. Lewis R. Rosenblum said Maldonado knew Alonzo planned to “hit up” the guard and should have called the police or the theater. Alonzo paged Maldonado for a ride afterward, he said.

“[Maldonado] could have saved the guy’s life,” Rosenblum said.

A passenger in the car, Jesse Pena, who was 19 at the time, awaits trial for murder in the same case.