Gangs May Link Deaths

DRUGS, JEALOUSY ALSO CITED IN PAIR OF FREMONT SLAYINGS

Two of Fremont's four homicides in 1997 had links to gangs, police and
prosecutors say.

But those slayings also may have stemmed from reasons that are far more
familiar in violent deaths -- drugs and jealousy over the affections of
members of the opposite sex, investigators say.

A man and a teenage boy are in custody in connection with the deaths of
Robert Chavez and Gabriel Angelo Olmos, both natives of the city's
Irvington district who hung out in a loose-knit circle of friends in the area.

Olmos, 24, died Dec. 7, after being beaten with clubs and stabbed several
times that night in the parking lot of the Sundale shopping center on
Stevenson Boulevard. A 17-year-old boy known to police as a gang member is
in custody at the San Leandro juvenile hall in connection with the killing.

Investigators believe an array of motives may have led to his death,
including the fact that he rode in the same car as Chavez's suspected
killer six months before.

Police also suspect he may have been involved in drug dealings gone bad.

``The victim in this thing just wasn't liked by a lot folks,'' said
detective Greg Gerhard. ``There were people after him.''

Olmos was also slated to be a witness in the trial of a man suspected of
stabbing Chavez to death in June. Michael Dean ``Mosco'' Macahilas, 35, of
Fremont, was arrested on murder charges and is awaiting a preliminary
hearing in early February.

In October, Olmos was beaten by a group of men who cornered him in a
parking lot after he got out of a taxi.

Last month, four Fremont men had charges of assault in connection with the
beating dismissed because Olmos, the only witness in the attack, had been
killed, court records show.

But prosecutors say the beating may have had more to do with Chavez's
death. The four men were friends of the earlier slaying victim, authorities
said.

Chavez, 22, was stabbed to death in June outside an Irvington 7-Eleven
store after he purchased a can of beer. Police reported that he died after
an apparent scuffle with Macahilas, who got out of a car and approached him.

Olmos, who was in the car that night, was expected to testify in the
upcoming murder trial and may have been killed in retaliation for the
Chavez slaying. But police and prosecutors say he wasn't the only witness.
At least three others who were at the scene that night will be called as
witnesses.

``He was an important witness, but I can still make the case without him,''
Assistant District Attorney Ken Mifsud said, charging that the murder was
more likely over the affections of a woman than the result of gang rivalries.

A month after the slaying, suspected friends of Chavez beat up Macahilas in
his cell at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, Alameda County sheriff's deputies said.

According to police and court documents, the group to which all the
suspects and victims belong is mostly Latino youths claiming allegiance to
Norteño gang factions. The Norteño umbrella group includes gangs in San
Jose, Oakland, Hayward, San Francisco and almost every other city and town
in Northern California.

The local group identifies itself by several names, but mainly as
Irvington-based Norteños. Investigators say the central Fremont gang dates
at least from the mid-1980s.

Both the 17-year-old in custody in the Olmos slaying and another boy
arrested shortly after the killing but later released were suspected
members of a younger gang associated with the Irvington men.

During a search of the boys' homes, investigators allegedly found gang
markings and a photo of the two sporting rifles.