Alvarez portrayed by defense as remorseful

Minutes after triggering the deadliest crash in Metrolink history three years ago, Juan Manuel Alvarez called his cousin Beto Alvarez.

“I didn’t mean to do this, Beto,” Alvarez said, sobbing hysterically. “A lot of innocent people died. I don’t deserve to live, Beto. . . . Please pray for me.”

The message, recorded on Beto Alvarez’s cellphone and played for jurors Thursday, is evidence of Alvarez’s remorse that jurors should consider in deciding whether he should be sentenced to life in prison or given the death penalty, defense attorneys said as they presented their case on the fourth day of the penalty phase of Alvarez’s trial.

The 29-year-old former Compton laborer was convicted last month on 11 counts of first-degree murder. On Jan. 26, 2005, Alvarez parked his sport utility vehicle on the railroad tracks near Glendale and fled. A Metrolink passenger train struck the vehicle, plowed into a parked freight train and collided with an oncoming commuter train. In addition to the 11 fatalities, at least 180 people were injured.

“The real significance is the timing of [the phone message] and the nature of what he is saying,” defense attorney Michael R. Belter told Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge William R. Pounders before jurors took their seats in the courtroom. Alvarez called Beto about 15 minutes after the crash, defense attorneys said.

Although Pounders had not permitted jurors to hear the recording during the trial, he decided to allow it as evidence during the penalty phase, although he said the call sounded “patently made up” to him.

Nonetheless, the judge said the recording might counterbalance the abundance of emotional testimony offered this week by victims’ relatives.

During his eight-week trial, Alvarez testified that his actions were an abortive suicide attempt. Prosecutors argued that he was a violent and dangerous man who intended to wreak havoc. They have dismissed his suicide attempt contention as “fake” and are seeking the death penalty.

On Thursday, the defense called relatives of Alvarez, including his cousins, wife and mother, to give “a clear picture of who this man is” and describe his dysfunctional upbringing, which was rife with sexual molestation, physical abuse and drug use.

Leticia Ayala, Alvarez’s mother, cried as she told of her attempt to abort her unborn son because her husband -- who she said beat her mercilessly -- didn’t want any more children.

Testifying through a Spanish interpreter, she said the brutality continued against her and her son after Alvarez was born. She acknowledged that she also beat Alvarez, her second of three children, and was never kind to him.

Ayala testified that Alvarez, an introverted child, once tried to hang himself with a clothes line after he saw his father assaulting her. “He was a very serious, quiet boy. He never played with anyone,” she said.

Alvarez’s wife, Carmelita, testified that when he was not on drugs, he was a “good father” who loved his two children, Andrea, 10, and Isaac, 7.

Alvarez treated Andrea as his own although he is not her biological father, Carmelita Alvarez said. “There’s always going to be a place in my heart for him,” she added.

Prosecutors tried to show that Alvarez lacked remorse by referring to a jailhouse phone call between him and his sister shortly after he was convicted, in which he made crude jokes and comments. They also insisted that he had ample opportunity to get help for his drug problem, but refused.

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ann.simmons@latimes.com