The four defendants, who range in age from 16 to 20 years old, were convicted in November of several charges in the attack. On April 16, 2007, one of them allegedly stood on the railroad tracks to slow an eastbound Amtrak Capital Corridor train in West Sacramento just before the tracks cross the Sacramento River. When the train slowed, two defendants starting pelting an engineer with rocks as he got off the train to clear the tracks, according to the Yolo County district attorney.Four alleged members of the Broderick Boys street gang face 13 to 15 years in prison at Friday afternoon's sentencing for the 2007 West Sacramento beating of an Amtrak engineer and conducto.The engineer and the men began fighting. The conductor then got involved by spraying a fire extinguisher to chase away the assailants. Before it was over, both the engineer and conductor were injured. The engineer was hurt most severely hurt, hit in the head with rocks, the fire extinguisher and a bottle of alcohol, according to prosecutors.Prosecutors say the fight was the culmination of a day of drinking and partying by the men. They say the group stole five cases of beer from the nearby Lighthouse Market and were drinking that beer near the tracks across the street when the train came along at 10:30 that night.
Paliton Nunes, 20; Austen Nunes, 19; and Orlando Ramos, 16, were all convicted on 11 felony counts, including attempted manslaughter, assault with deadly weapons and throwing objects at a train. Daniel Bonge, 19, was convicted of the same charges except for the attempted manslaughter charge.The four men were also convicted on a charge of belonging to a street gang. All are from West Sacramento and prosecutors say they belong to the Broderick Boys. A fifth defendant, Robert Reynolds, was acquitted on all charges.The Broderick Boys have sparked controversy for several years, with police and prosecutors attempting to impose a gang injunction limiting their activity in a zone of West Sacramento. Many residents dispute the Broderick Boys label, protesting the gang injunction as a civil rights violation. They say the term "Broderick Boys" no longer relates to a gang but rather is a long-established identity for people growing up in that section of the city.The four defendants have been in custody on no bail since their conviction. Sentencing is set for Friday afternoon at Yolo County Court in Woodland.