> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Justice eludes shell-shocked family - URL: https://www.smdp.com/justice-eludes-shell-shocked-family/ - Published: 2004-12-06T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T05:46:52.000Z - Author: Carolyn Sackariason - Tags: Business, Santa Monica, #archive-import *‘Unfortunate circumstances’ put men in harm’s way* 11TH STREET — It’s been six years since two brothers were gunned down in a clothing store on Lincoln Boulevard, yet their family still awaits justice. The murder cases of Michael Juarez and Anthony Juarez remain unsolved. Police classify the investigation as open, though the cases aren’t being worked on as intensely as they once were. Sunnie Juarez, 36, and her father, Bill Juarez, 60, recently reflected upon the anniversary of Michael and Anthony Juarez’s deaths and prepared for another holiday season without them. On Oct. 27, 1998, the young men were visiting their cousin’s business, Westside Clothing, when three masked gunmen stormed into the store and fired numerous rounds from an assault rifle and pair of handguns. Michael Juarez, 27, and Anthony Juarez, 19, were killed. Their cousin, Frank Juarez Jr., the proprietor of the store, was critically wounded, but survived. ‘NO UNSOLVED MURDER IS CLOSED’ Santa Monica police detectives feel the homicides were gang-related — the suspects still at-large are allegedly members of the Culver City Boyz gang. The murders were believed to be in retaliation for a homicide which occurred just days before the Juarezes were gunned down in broad daylight. Apparently, a gang member who was attending a drug class at the Clare Foundation on Lincoln Boulevard was shot while waiting for the bus, sources said, prompting the Culver City Boyz to retaliate against Santa Monica gang members. Anticipating a possible retaliation, the Santa Monica Police Department was on high alert and had a gang suppression task force in place at the time of the Juarez killings. Staffing was augmented with overtime personnel, and according to police, the SMPD had borrowed a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department helicopter to lend aerial support. Michael and Anthony Juarez were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Westside Clothing was known on the streets as a place for gang members to buy clothing. “They told us they knew it was the Culver City Boyz in retaliation for the boy who was killed six days before,” said Sunnie Juarez. “They were only interested in killing two boys from Santa Monica.” But the Juarez brothers weren’t from Santa Monica, nor affiliated with any gangs — they were interested in opening a store like Westside Clothing where they lived in Cayucos, a small town in San Luis Obispo County. They had come into Santa Monica the night before to check out their cousin’s operation. “It’s an unfortunate set of circumstances that led them to the hip-hop store,” said SMPD Police Chief James T. Butts Jr. Detectives continue to work on the cases, but as time goes by they become more difficult to solve, admitted SMPD Lt. Ray Cooper. “There is no unsolved murder that is closed. There is a potential of a case getting stale, but at this point our investigation is still ongoing. “There is no doubt that this is a gang-related crime, which is more difficult because you’re dealing with people who are less cooperative,” Lt. Cooper added. The men wearing masks entered the store — which was located between Pacific and Strand streets on Lincoln Boulevard — shortly before noon, opened fire and ran out. Michael and Frank Juarez ran toward the back door to escape the gunfire. Michael Juarez was shot multiple times and Frank Juarez was shot in the leg. Anthony Juarez didn’t make it to the back of the store, and was gunned down. The masked men ran out of the store and got into a car awaiting them on Lincoln Boulevard, driven by a fourth suspect. The SMPD has a composite sketch posted on its Web site of the driver, which is based on witness descriptions. The car was discovered near LAX later that day, wiped clean. A $25,000 reward is being offered by the city of Santa Monica and another $20,000 is being offered by the state of California to anyone who has information leading police to the suspects. The SMPD had several leads in the case, which led them to gang members both in prison and on the street, but no one would provide information. “It’s difficult to break into an environment and get someone to roll over,” Lt. Cooper said. Sunnie Juarez said her brother Michael was the jokester in the family. Living in his father’s triplex in Cayucos with his wife and daughter at the time of the shooting, he owned and operated a landscaping business. His little brother Anthony lived next door with his girlfriend and was going to college to earn a degree in business administration and landscape architecture. His plan was to help Michael Juarez run the landscaping business. “It’s two lives cut short,” Sunnie Juarez said. “They had their whole lives to live.” A HOUSE DIVIDED Sunnie and Bill Juarez are frustrated with the investigation, which they perceive as being put on the back burner because of the gang ties. They want justice brought against the perpetrators so they can bring closure to their lives. “There’s this huge, gaping hole and there’s nothing to fill it and it just gets bigger,” Sunnie Juarez said, adding the unanswered questions have plagued her father to a point that impedes his daily life. “He’s just looking for answers, some sort of resolve.” Bill Juarez said ever since the murders he’s been unable to stay in one place for too long, is anxious and suffers from memory loss. His father died 100 days after his sons were murdered. Bill Juarez believes he’s still suffering from posttraumatic disorder and doesn’t remember much about the days following the murders. “Ninety-nine percent doesn’t exist in my brain,” he said. “I only have little, black-and-white pictures of things, of burying my father and my sons... I have these long blank spaces... “I went through therapists like toilet paper,” he added. Bill Juarez stopped seeking therapy and quit taking anti-depressants prescribed to him because they made him even more dazed than he already was. He still hopes the killers will be found and envisions a day when he can face them at trial. “Sometimes I imagine us in court and I see my family and their family and something inside me says I need to help them,” Bill Juarez said. “Six years later, I know my sons are dead, but I still look for them or think I see them... that’s on the verge of fantasy. “When I’m really in pain and I’m headed in the wrong direction, I go to the boys and ask them to show me a sign,” continued Bill Juarez, who lives just five blocks from the cemetery where his sons are buried in Cayucos. “They do it with pennies. They show up all the time. I find them all over.” For Sunnie Juarez, it pains her to see her father still suffering. “What I want is for that to stop,” she said, pointing to her father crying as they sat in the living room of his mother’s house on 11th Street recently. “I want my dad to be able to sleep.” Bill Juarez worries that his inability to deal with his loss is having a negative effect on his family. “I feel like I am a burden... a constant memory,” he said. “At times, it gets too heavy.” The Juarez family has been in turmoil as a result of the murders. Sunnie Juarez’s sister, Carmen, now suffers from a mental disability. Sunnie Juarez is estranged from her brother, Bill, and Michael Juarez’s daughter, who was 3 years old at the time of her father’s death, has had little stability in her life since then. Now 9 years old, Javanna Rose Juarez lives with her grandmother in Paso Robles because her mother, Michael Juarez’s wife, turned to drugs and has been in and out of jail since his death, according to Bill Juarez. “Nothing has been the same since,” he said. “Laughter no longer takes place (in the family),” Sunnie Juarez said. “When something that dramatic hits, it affects everyone.” A QUESTION OF PRIORITIES SMPD detectives also hold out hope that they’ll get a break in the case, especially with modern advances in DNA technology. A hat was left at the scene, which could ultimately lead to a suspect. DNA testing was applied at the outset of the case, but the technology wasn’t as advanced six years ago, Lt. Cooper said. DNA evidence has been reapplied and reevaluated to the cases, but so far there have been no hits in the Department of Justice databank. Investigators also weigh the evidence of other gang-related crimes in Santa Monica to the Juarez cases, hoping to find a link. Sunnie and Bill Juarez think police could be doing more. “I’ve been pissed since day one,” Bill Juarez said, adding he’s had minimal contact with SMPD detectives. “What increases the anger is how it’s been handled... I see more cases that get attention.” The Juarezes specifically point to a German tourist who was killed on Santa Monica Beach two weeks prior to Michael and Anthony Juarez’s death. They say more was put into that investigation than in their family’s cases. The tourist homicide remains unsolved, although police have identified a suspect who is currently being sought. Chief Butts said in no way has the SMPD backed off the Juarez case, and the German tourist homicide appeared to get more attention because of the media’s interest in it. “There are few cases like the Juarez case that has so much documentation,” Butts said, adding investigators have amassed seven four-inch think binders related to the cases. Butts added he speaks with Michael and Anthony Juarez’s mother, Ginger Berg, for nearly an hour every year near the anniversary of their deaths. Bill Juarez said he has spoken to Chief Butts once or twice since the murders, and other investigators more frequently. He’s said he’s frustrated that he can’t see any documentation on the cases, but because it’s an ongoing investigation, it’s off limits. “It’s a little disheartening because they know more than they let on,” Bill Juarez said. “They kept saying, ‘we’re working on it.’ I got pissed off because you can only hear that so much.” Sunnie Juarez, who lives in Huntington Beach, said she relies on her faith to deal with her pain. “I find comfort that there is a higher power and they (the killers) will answer to that higher power,” she said. “That’s my saving grace.” Bill Juarez said his sons’ murders have taught him a painful lesson that life shouldn’t be taken for granted and has since put more emphasis on his family. But what he wants most of all is answers. “I want honesty,” he said. “I would like (the police) to talk to us.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/120604-01_01.jpg) Sunnie Juarez and her father, Bill Juarez, console each other in front of a wall adorned with family photos in the Juarez family home in Santa Monica. (Photo: Carolyn Sackariason/Daily Press) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/120604-01_02.jpg) Sunnie Juarez and her father, Bill Juarez, console each other in front of a wall adorned with family photos in the Juarez family home in Santa Monica. (Photo: Carolyn Sackariason/Daily Press) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/120604-01_05.jpg) of SMPD Police are still looking for a man fitting this description, who is believed to have been the getaway driver in the Juarez murders. (Photo: Photo courtesy) *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 6, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/120604.pdf?ref=smdp.com)