Juan Manuel Alvarez

LOS ANGELES — Deputy Dist. Atty. John Monaghan told jurors during closing arguments Wednesday that Juan Manuel Alvarez never intended to commit suicide when he drove his SUV onto train tracks at Chevy Chase Drive, having instead perpetrated the 2005 Metrolink train derailment that killed 11 and injured more than 180 passengers as an attention-grabbing stunt. Alvarez is charged with 11 counts of murder with special circumstances and one count each of arson and train wrecking for causing a Jan. 26, 2005, three-train crash when he drove his Jeep Cherokee onto the Metrolink tracks between Glendale and Los Angeles and doused his vehicle with gasoline.

LOS ANGELES — A rock found near the scene of the 2005 Metrolink train derailment that left 11 people dead and nearly 200 others injured, showed evidence of tire treads. But the treads may not have been from the Jeep Grand Cherokee that Juan Manuel Alvarez drove onto the tracks that day. That assessment, from forensic scientist Bryan Burnett, highlighted the first day of defense attorneys’ witnesses as Alvarez’s team tries to show that Alvarez attempted to reverse off the tracks minutes before an oncoming commuter train hit his SUV. “In my opinion that material, which I extracted from the rock . .

LOS ANGELES ? More than three years after a train crash near Chevy Chase Drive left 11 passengers dead, prosecutors told a jury Monday that a mentally unstable and drug-addled Juan Manuel Alvarez intentionally caused the fiery crash in an attempt to reconcile with his estranged wife. ?He needed to do something big to get her attention,? Deputy Dist. Atty. Cathryn Brougham said during the trial?s first day. ?He chose to kill 11 strangers.? Pictures of the wreckage and mangled bodies of the 11 victims were displayed during opening statements as family members of the dead openly wept in the packed Los Angeles courtroom Monday.

LOS ANGELES — A Superior Court judge on Wednesday sentenced Juan Manuel Alvarez to serve 11 consecutive life sentences in prison after he was convicted in June for causing a deadly 2005 train derailment in Glendale. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Pounders told Alvarez, 29, that he showed no remorse for his actions in the derailment, the deadliest train crash in Metrolink’s history. Pounders denied the possibility of parole and sentenced Alvarez to also serve two years in prison for arson.

Jackson Bell The 25-year-old man accused of killing 11 people by causing Metrolink's deadliest train wreck made his first court appearance Friday, but a judge postponed the arraignment so medical experts could evaluate him, officials said. Police say Juan Manuel Alvarez, of Compton, drove his Jeep Grand Cherokee onto the railroad tracks near Chevy Chase Drive Wednesday morning in a suicide attempt that caused a three-train wreck, which killed 11 passengers and injured nearly 200. Alvarez allegedly jumped out of his Jeep moments before a commuter train collided into the SUV and then smashed into another train.

Jury pool is shrinking in train-crash case A Los Angeles Superior Court judge excused more than 30 jurors Thursday and allowed about 100 photographs to be shown as evidence for the upcoming trial of 29-year-old Juan Manuel Alvarez, who faces capital murder charges for allegedly causing a 2005 Metrolink derailment that killed 11 and left nearly 200 people injured. Judge William R. Pounders released the jurors for a variety of reasons, including economic and medical, in a continued effort to find 16 jurors acceptable to the defense and prosecution, defense attorney Michael Belter said.

GLENDALE — Metrolink has agreed to pay roughly $39 million to settle all but one of the lawsuits filed against the agency in the aftermath of a January 2005 derailment that killed 11 passengers on the Glendale border, an attorney for the plaintiffs said Wednesday. Of the 186 complaints filed against the agency in the wake of the accident, all but one of the suits have been resolved, said Jerome Ringler, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs. All 11 wrongful death lawsuits have been settled and 15 of the 16 serious injury lawsuits have been resolved.

LOS ANGELES — A Superior Court judge and attorneys Tuesday went over the language in a jury statement that will be read to potential jurors as they prepare for the trial in a class-action lawsuit regarding the January 2005 Metrolink train derailment in Glendale that killed 11 people. Judge Emilie Elias will read the statement, which briefly explains the case and role of a jury, to potential jurors at the June 8 jury selection hearing at Central Civil West Court. Attorneys representing Metrolink and those representing the victims of the derailment argued about whether language in the statement should say that Juan Manuel Alvarez was convicted of first-degree murder or just murder.

GLENDALE — Metrolink has agreed to pay roughly $39 million to settle all but one of the lawsuits filed against the agency in the aftermath of a January 2005 derailment that killed 11 passengers on the Glendale border, an attorney for the plaintiffs said Wednesday. Of the 186 complaints filed against the agency in the wake of the accident, all but one of the suits have been resolved, said Jerome Ringler, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs. All 11 wrongful death lawsuits have been settled and 15 of the 16 serious injury lawsuits have been resolved.

LOS ANGELES — A Superior Court judge and attorneys Tuesday went over the language in a jury statement that will be read to potential jurors as they prepare for the trial in a class-action lawsuit regarding the January 2005 Metrolink train derailment in Glendale that killed 11 people. Judge Emilie Elias will read the statement, which briefly explains the case and role of a jury, to potential jurors at the June 8 jury selection hearing at Central Civil West Court. Attorneys representing Metrolink and those representing the victims of the derailment argued about whether language in the statement should say that Juan Manuel Alvarez was convicted of first-degree murder or just murder.

LOS ANGELES — A Superior Court judge on Wednesday sentenced Juan Manuel Alvarez to serve 11 consecutive life sentences in prison after he was convicted in June for causing a deadly 2005 train derailment in Glendale. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Pounders told Alvarez, 29, that he showed no remorse for his actions in the derailment, the deadliest train crash in Metrolink’s history. Pounders denied the possibility of parole and sentenced Alvarez to also serve two years in prison for arson.

Family members of the 11 people killed in the 2005 Metrolink train derailment no longer need to wonder what will happen to the man who caused it. Juan Manuel Alvarez was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for parking his sport utility vehicle on the tracks and causing the worst wreck in Metrolink history. Many people, including the prosecution, thought Alvarez should be put to death, but the real comfort for victims? families and the community is that it?

LOS ANGELES — Jurors on Tuesday ruled that Juan Manuel Alvarez should spend the rest of his life in prison, forgoing a death sentence for his role in a deadly 2005 train derailment. Alvarez, 29, smiled after Court Clerk Alberta Jordan read the verdict from the nine-woman, three-man panel that on June 26 found the former construction worker guilty of 11 counts of first-degree murder and one count of arson. Jurors took less than four hours to return the sentence, which precludes Alvarez from seeking parole.

LOS ANGELES — Emotionally charged testimony by co-workers and family members of victims who died in a 2005 Metrolink train crash marked the first day of the penalty phase against Juan Manuel Alvarez on Monday, highlighted by tearful jurors and loud weeping from those sitting in the packed courtroom. Alvarez, 29, was convicted of 11 counts of first-degree murder and one count of arson on June 26 for his role in the Jan. 26, 2005, Metrolink derailment that injured 184 crew members and passengers.

NORTHWEST GLENDALE — Jurors on Wednesday visited the mangled wreckage and charred remains of four Metrolink train cars at the heart of the case against Juan Manuel Alvarez, as the penalty phase against the day laborer continued for a third day. The viewing was proposed by prosecutors who wanted to give jurors a more intimate look at the damaged train cars that they heard about during the eight-week trial, officials said. Alvarez, who opted to remain in his Men’s County Jail cell in Los Angeles during the jury viewing, was convicted of 11 counts of first-degree murder on June 26 for parking his Jeep Cherokee on a set of Metrolink tracks 125 feet from the Chevy Chase Drive crossing in Glendale.

LOS ANGELES — After less than two days of deliberation, jurors found Juan Manuel Alvarez guilty Thursday of 11 counts of first-degree murder and one count of arson for his role in the January 2005 Metrolink train wreck. The nine-woman, three-man jury did not convict Alvarez on a train-wrecking charge, but found him at fault for at least one special-circumstance charge that could result in the death penalty. The penalty phase of the trial is scheduled to begin July 7, with testimony from victims’ family members, who filled the courtroom Thursday.