THREE OF 4 GUILTY IN GANG SLAYING.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

Jurors convicted three men but acquitted a fourth in the gang-related slaying of a teenager who was gunned down in Lake Los Angeles as he drove away from a friend's house.

Eighteen-year-old Ernesto Barba was shot and killed in January 2004 after a fight with a group of men who had been standing outside a house where he went to retrieve a music CD.

George Marron, 24, Jose Medina, 25, and Raymond Vallejo, 24, each face up to 50 years to life in prison after being convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder by a Los Angeles Superior Court jury.

The fourth defendant, Jason Falcon, 26, was found not guilty, Deputy District Attorney Benny Osorio said.

Marron, Medina and Vallejo were each also convicted of attempted murder, in connection with a female passenger in Barba's car, and jurors also found gang and gun allegations true as to the three defendants.

The three defendants are scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 16.

The victim and the three convicted defendants were gang members, Osorio said. There was no evidence that Falcon was a gang member, he said.

Barba had gone over to a friend's house in the 40500 block of 174th Street East early Jan. 3 to pick up the CD when he was confronted by the defendants, who challenged him by asking, ``Where are you from,'' Osorio said.

He responded with a gang name, and the defendants replied with their gang affiliation, and a fight ensued, Osorio said.

Barba then got into his car and drove off, Osorio said.

``When the car is driving away, Medina runs into the middle of the street and starts to shoot 13 rounds. The car is found crashed two blocks away. Barba was shot in the back of the head,'' Osorio said.

Falcon had held back one of the witnesses for several seconds while the witness was trying to help the wounded Barba, Osorio said.

``Vallejo and Marron are guilty as aiders and abettors. The consequence of getting into a gang fight is that there would be a homicide,'' Osorio said. ``They were fighters.''

Barba was a student at Desert Sands Continuation High School but was preparing to start a new job the week after he was killed.

Medina was arrested in February 2004 in Texas after investigators learned he might have left California and alerted other police agencies around the country.

The others were arrested in Lake Los Angeles in the two months following the killing.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com