Murder at Maxwell

Two 17-year-old teens from Boyes Hot Springs engaged on Monday, October 22, in what was later called an “exchange of hostile gestures” near the Boys and Girls Club at Maxwell Park. One boy, Juan Calderon, drove off with two friends, both aged 19, only to return later on foot, according to police, with a sawed-off 16-gauge shotgun and hide behind some bushes. Springing out, according to police, he shot at the other boy, Luis Roberto Miranda, killing him with three blasts to the torso and head, and causing public safety concerns throughout Sonoma Valley of a kind not experienced in more than a decade.
There were many witnesses to the killing, and Calderon and his friends, Juan Carlos Perez, 19, of American Canyon and Javier Ceja, 19, of Sonoma, were arrested within hours. They are being held without bail on suspicion of murder and are scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 2.
And within hours an impromptu memorial started to form at Maxwell Park. Candles, flowers, notes, and photographs adorned a picnic table near the top of the rise above the Boys and Girls Club, along with a white “Cal” baseball cap and numerous empty 40-ounce bottles of malt liquor. It is reportedly a tradition among the hip hop set to dump the contents of a 40-ounce bottle on the ground and place the empty in a place that honors a fallen comrade.
Friends of Miranda hanging out at the memorial were wiling to chat about the boy and the incident. Nineteen-year-old Gustavo Garcia of Sonoma was one of those, a long-time friend who said that Miranda was not “a gang banger,” though he liked to wear red clothing and frequently had run-ins with the others. Police have called it a gang-related slaying. Calderon and his friends, said Garcia, “are idiots who were all cracked up,” outcasts in their own Sureño gang, which wears blue. Miranda, Garcia said, was no saint, but was not bad. “He was about respect and pride and was not into gangs.”
Numerous memorial services have been held, as the community comes to grips with the tragedy and how closely it has touched many in Sonoma Valley. A Mass was held at St. Francis Solano Catholic Church on Friday, October 26, with the school children each hugging Miranda’s mother and shaking hands with the father. At St. Leo’s Catholic Church in Agua Caliente on Saturday, Father Carlos Ortega conducted a vigil service attended by some 300 youth and adults from across the community. Ortega made a special plea to the many teenagers attending, saying in Spanish, “Not one more! Not one more!” He was addressing the widespread concern over escalation, that this killing might lead to retaliatory acts.
On Monday afternoon a Mass was held at St. Leo’s, attended by more than 500 persons. Ortega again stressed the need for peace. “He was a victim of the hate that lies in the heart of man,” Ortega said. “You in the name of Jesus Christ must end the violence so that [Miranda’s] killing will not be in vain.
“No more victims, no more pain,” said Ortega. “You young people should be builders of peace. Rid your hearts of any revenge or hate. No more violence. Let there be peace in God’s justice.”
And on Tuesday evening just after dark, friends and others gathered in groups near the memorial in Maxwell Park. The feeling there was noticeably more upbeat, as if the youths had come to terms with what had happened eight days earlier, and had understood the importance of its lessons.