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At this spot 38 year old Herbert Kay was beaten to death in June 1997 by members of the True Blue Crips Gang of East Palo Alto. Kay was NASA scientist and a father of two twin girls.
Six East Palo gang members were arrested for committing the crime, five Samoan -- a fact that generated much discussion in Palo Alto at the time of the murder.
On June 12, 1997 the six were hanging out as usual, drinking Mad Dog 20/20, a sweet fortified wine notorious for its potency, when they decided to pile into Valdes' blue Isuzu Rodeo and head to Palo Alto to rob someone. While cruising around downtown just blocks from the police station, they allegedly spotted Kay out alone for an evening stroll.
While Valdes stayed in the car, the other five approached the scientist, struck him in the face and knocked him to the ground, according to accounts of the attack given to police by some of the young men after they were arrested.
The first assailant (who later pleaded guilty), searched Kay for money. Finding none, he retreated and urged his friends to do the same. They did not, according to authorities. Instead, Lelei, Tevaga and the remaining two allegedly began to savagely beat Kay while he lay on the street.
Lelei and Iapesa Simanu, who was considered the leader of the group, then dragged Kay off the street and continued beating and kicking him on the side of the road, leaving him with massive injuries to his head, face and neck.
The district attorney charged all six with murder, relying on a decades-old legal principal that makes all participants in a serious felony -- such as a robbery -- guilty of murder if someone is killed in the course of the crime. They were all were eventually convicted and locked behind bars.
Kay's wife had this to say following the guilty verdicts: "These men were all between the ages of 15 and 20, they were all sadistic and vicious," Kay said. "They took away my best friend, the person I loved most in the world. He was a funny man, gentle, intelligent, and our little girls still miss him."
The murders left emotional scars in shaken Palo Alto and devastated the Samoan community in East Palo Alto.
At this spot 38 year old Herbert Kay was beaten to death in June 1997 by members of the True Blue Crips Gang of East Palo Alto. Kay was NASA scientist and a father of two twin girls.
Six East Palo gang members were arrested for committing the crime, five Samoan -- a fact that generated much discussion in Palo Alto at the time of the murder.
On June 12, 1997 the six were hanging out as usual, drinking Mad Dog 20/20, a sweet fortified wine notorious for its potency, when they decided to pile into Valdes' blue Isuzu Rodeo and head to Palo Alto to rob someone. While cruising around downtown just blocks from the police station, they allegedly spotted Kay out alone for an evening stroll.
While Valdes stayed in the car, the other five approached the scientist, struck him in the face and knocked him to the ground, according to accounts of the attack given to police by some of the young men after they were arrested.
The first assailant (who later pleaded guilty), searched Kay for money. Finding none, he retreated and urged his friends to do the same. They did not, according to authorities. Instead, Lelei, Tevaga and the remaining two allegedly began to savagely beat Kay while he lay on the street.
Lelei and Iapesa Simanu, who was considered the leader of the group, then dragged Kay off the street and continued beating and kicking him on the side of the road, leaving him with massive injuries to his head, face and neck.
The district attorney charged all six with murder, relying on a decades-old legal principal that makes all participants in a serious felony -- such as a robbery -- guilty of murder if someone is killed in the course of the crime. They were all were eventually convicted and locked behind bars.
Kay's wife had this to say following the guilty verdicts: "These men were all between the ages of 15 and 20, they were all sadistic and vicious," Kay said. "They took away my best friend, the person I loved most in the world. He was a funny man, gentle, intelligent, and our little girls still miss him."
The murders left emotional scars in shaken Palo Alto and devastated the Samoan community in East Palo Alto.
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brutality , evidence , robbery , crime , herbert kay , true blue crips , east palo alto , gangs , scars
brutality , evidence , robbery , crime , herbert kay , true blue crips , east palo alto , gangs , scars
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