Marcella ran screaming for help into the alley. A neighbor, who refused to be identified because of fear of the police, told New Times she thought Montano was being beaten by gang members. Montano, a solidly built man wearing a sleeveless T-shirt that fails to conceal a large, faded tattoo on his chest, recounts his terrifying arrest as he wanders back and forth between his two adjacent backyards. He is retired, having blown out his knee and back while driving a truck for the city of L.A., and walks with difficulty. The back yard of the rental house isn't the neatest.
Oil stains the concrete parking pad, and trashed appliances lean against the house's back wall.
But it isn't out of place in Cypress Park, a tough neighborhood of small timeworn stucco homes and narrow, twisting, rutted streets near Dodger Stadium. The stage is set exactly as it was three years ago, when Montano was busted as a burglary suspect in the backyard of his own rental house. Montano hadn't thought much about the call from the alarm company. The system had gone off at the rental house before, police arrived, and the call was cleared. He kept chatting with a neighbor.