Pair Get Life Sentences for Gang Killings : Trial: The Garden Grove drive-by shooting--in which a teen-age rival and a 4-year-old boy died--was worst gang violence in county history.

NEWPORT BEACH —  Two reputed Santa Ana gang members, convicted of murdering a teen-age rival and a 4-year-old bystander in the worst gang violence in county history, were ordered Friday to spend the rest of their lives in prison for a crime the judge called “inexcusable.”

Tensions ran high in the tightly guarded courtroom of Superior Court Judge Tulley H. Seymour as two dozen supporters of the defendants--some wearing “Not Guilty” T-shirts--shot occasional glances at their outnumbered rivals across the courtroom.

There, among the black-clad relatives of the two victims in the Sept. 16, 1989, shooting in Garden Grove, sat several key witnesses who had broken a longstanding “code of silence” among gangs and helped to prosecute Louis P. Valadez, 28, and Robert P. Figueroa, 21.

Minutes after her son was sentenced, Isabel Figueroa of Santa Ana stormed out of her seat and, as she tried to push her way past police at the door, struck one officer in the shoulder. She was taken into custody for booking on a charge of assaulting a peace officer, police said.

Court marshals and police were so worried about further confrontation that, after the sentencings, they separated the family and friends of the defendants from those of the victims and led them out of the building in shifts.

Even then, one group yelled at the other as they drove away from the Harbor Courthouse on Jamboree Road.

Frank Fernandez Sr., whose 4-year-old son was killed in a hail of gunfire in the attack, said outside the courtroom that hostilities among the rival factions “is gonna get worse right now--because everyone’s mad. But hopefully it’ll blow away.”

His son, Frank Jr., was shot to death as he sat with the family in their car on La Bonita Avenue in Garden Grove, waiting to go to the movies. Police said several young men in a pickup truck drove slowly past the area where they were parked as another group of people stood nearby.

Men in the truck then opened fire with semiautomatic rifles, killing Frank Jr. and17-year-old Miguel (Smokey) Navarro. A 17th Street gang member, Navarro may have been a target of the drive-by shooting, which was spurred by an earlier attack in 5th Street gang territory, authorities said.

Six other people were wounded in the gunfire, including Frank Jr.’s 2-year-old brother and a man whose left leg had to be amputated.

Last week, Seymour sentenced a third man convicted in the attack to 25 years to life in prison. The judge said Friday that he wanted to give Roman Gabriel Menchaca, 20, an even tougher sentence but could not because the jury convicted him only of conspiracy and split over a murder charge.

The fourth defendant in the case, a 15-year-old gang member, is to be sentenced next Friday in juvenile court. He is expected to be sent away to the California Youth Authority until he turns 25. Authorities allege that the minor and Menchaca, in the back of the pickup, were the shooters.

The sentencing next week will close out a case that stirred fears of rising gang warfare in Santa Ana, Garden Grove and elsewhere in the county because of the brutality and disregard for bystanders.

In delivering the sentence, Seymour said he was sending a “message” to the community as well as seeking to execute justice. “This is a real pivotal case as far as this county is concerned,” he said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas Avdeef echoed that theme, telling the judge that he must send a signal to gang members that their crimes will be dealt with sternly in the judicial system. “That’s the way you educate the gang members,” he said.

Neither Valadez nor Figueroa is alleged to have been a shooter in the attack.

Prosecutors say Valadez, who had served time in state prison for assault and was on parole at the time of the crime, was the “leader” and mastermind of the assault and drove the truck.

Figueroa, they say, rode in the passenger seat and set the stage for the killings the day before by warning rival gang members that he was going to pay their friends “a visit.”

In ordering the two defendants to each spend life in prison without the possibility of parole, Seymour pointed to the multiple victims in the shootings, their use of a minor and the “planning and sophistication” of the attack, showing premeditation.

David A. Zimmerman, attorney for Valadez, delivered a virulent attack on the credibility of the young women who had placed the defendants at the scene. Calling their testimony “lies,” he said: “(Valadez) goes to prison forever for that! I don’t think that’s a fair trial.”

Isabel Figueroa also attacked the justice system, saying the judge and the jury were “prejudiced” against her son. “He never got a chance to prove that he was innocent,” she said in an emotional address to the court.

Seymour not only rejected their appeals for leniency but also ordered the defendants to each pay $10,000 in restitution to the families of the victims. Valadez sat stone-faced as the sentence was delivered, but Figueroa strained through his handcuffs to wipe tears from his eyes.

Zimmerman showed his frustration with the sentence when Seymour asked him how many days his client had already served in jail, to be credited against his life sentence. Caustically, the defense attorney answered, “It’s hard to believe anything could be more academic, judge.”