Los Lobos Murder Trial Begins

October 23, 2000 -- Exactly one year to the day of her disappearance, Gabriel Gomez, the half-brother of Los Lobos singer Cesar Rosas, went on trial for the murder of his half-sister.

"Sandra's generosity is what got her kidnapped and murdered," Deputy District Attorney Don Clem told the jury in his opening statements. He said that Sandra Rosas "literally moved him [Gomez] into their house. She was trying to turn him around," but added that, "there was no payoff. He wasn't growing."

Sandra Rosas vanished on the night of Oct. 23, 1999. Her daughters told police they arrived at her Los Angeles home and found the door open and broken glass from her van in the driveway. One of them called her cellular phone and allegedly overheard Gomez say, "You can never leave me. I'm going to make mad, passionate love to you. I'm going to rape you. I'm going to strangle you." The van was found several days later, containing a mixture of blood from both Rosas and Gomez.

Gomez's attorney, Antonio Bestard, said that his client "may have been one of the last people to see Sandra Rosas alive, but he certainly was not the last," adding that because a body has yet to be recovered, prosecutors don't have sufficient evidence to convict Gomez.

"They only have DNA, which excludes my client," he said.

Prosecutors have already decided not to seek the death penalty for Gomez, who will face a life sentence without parole if he is convicted of the crime.