Prisoner is charged with racketeering in L.A. gang bust

[Mexican Mafia, from B1]

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He traced his life of crime to problems at school. His parents didn’t speak English and taught him Italian as his first language. They dressed Nania differently than his classmates, who picked on him.

"That’s where the fights started," he said.

Angry at his parents, Nania said he turned to his gang — which he didn’t identify by name before the parole board — for acceptance.

"It seemed like every time I did a crime, no matter how small or big it was, I got praised for it," he recalled. "So I felt, OK, this is where I belong then."

One night, Nania said, he came home late and found his clothes strewn across the front lawn, he said. His father had had enough. Nania was a transient at 16.

The night of Oct. 13, 1995, Nania was at a party to commemorate the death of a fellow gang member, according to an appellate decision that summarized evidence at his trial. A young woman walked by; someone threw a beer bottle at her.

Her father, Christopher Kuaea, confronted the group.

"I shot him several times," Nania told the parole board. "He turned around, tried to run away. I shot him several more times in the back."

Nania, who'd been drinking beer and smoking marijuana that night, said he felt disrespected by Kuaea. "My mentality was, 'This is my city,'" he told the board.

Tried as an adult, Nania was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 40 years to life. At his parole hearing, he admitted to beating a prison guard with a baton during a riot and possessing phones.