Alleged gang member convicted of murder in 49th Street Massacre | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times

Alleged gang member convicted of murder in 49th Street Massacre L.A. NOW Los Angeles Times: "Charles Ray Smith, 41, repeatedly shook his head as the verdicts were read in a packed downtown Los Angeles courtroom. In the audience behind him, the mother of the 10-year-old boy wept quietly.
The 2006 slayings shocked the city and were part of a series of high-profile interracial gang crimes that stoked fears among some minority activists of a possible race war. The two gunmen who carried out the attack were described as black, the victims were Latino.
Police said the dead were not connected to gangs but that they suspected the attackers were. But prosecutors argued during the trial that race had little to do with the motive behind the killings.
Prosecutors said the gunmen, armed with AK-47 assault rifles, mistook the victims as rival gang members in a bloody feud between two local gangs.
The jury deliberated about two weeks before finding Smith guilty of the murders and the attempted murder of a 12-year-old boy wounded in the attack. The two boys who were shot were brothers and had been riding their bicycles in front of their South Los Angeles home.
Jurors also found Smith guilty in a separate fatal shooting of a construction worker three months earlier. The convictions mean Smith could face the death penalty."