Bidding Farewell to Slain Teen

The gloomy skies seemed to echo the heartbreak felt Wednesday morning during funeral services for a 17-year-old Santa Ana youth killed during a robbery.

More than 100 friends and family members gathered at St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church to mourn Jesse Muro Jr., a popular Century High School student who was killed April 1.

The teenager’s uncle, Steve Andrade, read from a poem titled “I’m Free,” urging the young man’s friends and family to remember the joy Jesse brought to their lives. “Perhaps my time seemed all too brief. Don’t lengthen it now with undue grief,” he read.

After Muro’s parents, Sylvia Andrade and Jesse Muro Sr., sprinkled holy water on the casket, six pallbearers carried the simple white coffin out of church. The boy’s father followed, carrying a framed collage of photos of his son. A picture of Jesse as a toddler showed a beaming boy with an impish smile hugging a yellow bear.

That smile is what many of Muro’s friends and family remember most.

Carol Velazquez, 16, said she danced the night away with Muro at a recent quinceanera, a 15th birthday celebration.

“He was really funny,” she said, tears streaming down her face. “He could always make us laugh.”

Neighbor Adam Evans, 21, said he and Muro hung out together, played video games and made home videos in which Muro would make funny noises for the camera. “He was a real clown,” Evans said.

At Santa Ana Cemetery, mourners huddled under two tents in the driving rain and recalled Muro’s kind heart.

“If he had a dollar and you needed it, he would give it to you,” said one relative, Rachel Laguna. Muro’s mother will “never be at peace,” she said. “She doesn’t know what he said at the end, what he was thinking. She’ll never know.”

Muro was shot in the back of the head after he and a friend were held up by three men on West Main Street in Tustin, police said. The assailants fled in a car tended by two young women, police said. Police arrested four suspects at a Stanton hotel and, hours later, a fifth at his home.

Eduardo David Vargas, Mathew Robert Miller and Eloy Aguilar Gonzalez, each 22, and Laura Espinoza, 18, were charged with murder, robbery and other crimes. If convicted, the men would face the death penalty. Their arraignments are scheduled for April 30.

A 17-year-old female suspect faces similar charges and has been turned over to juvenile authorities.