Late on a Fateful Night, 3 Young Lives Came to Collide

To find out about the life of Derreck Burruss, Tucson’s first homicide victim of 2008, talk to family and friends who describe him as the guy with a “Colgate smile” stretching from ear to ear.

Derreck Burruss (Family Photo)

But to find out about Anthony Richard Encinas, one of two people charged with killing Burruss, go to court records and his friends’ MySpace profiles.

On the Web, Encinas is referred to as “lil sleepy.” A pre-sentencing report for another crime says he’s “a hostile gang member with very little regard for the law and the rights of others.”

Burruss, a 16-year-old Santa Rita High School student, was fatally shot in the early morning hours of Jan. 5 while walking with friends on a street in southeast Tucson.

Encinas, 18, and Raymond Godoy, 15, are charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Burruss. The police say Encinas pulled the trigger.

As the two men sat in Pima County Jail on Jan. 6, Burruss’s friends and family held a car wash fundraiser just a few blocks from the murder scene. They were raising money so Burruss family members living in Wisconsin and North Carolina could attend the Jan. 12 memorial.

Burruss’s aunt Tiffany Jones, from El Paso, Texas, said the community had shown overwhelming support for the family.

“They have so much passion for us,” she said at the car wash. “Ninety-eight percent of people that come up are usually crying. It’s so nice to see so many great people in the world.”

As hip-hop music played from portable stereos under a gray sky, Burruss’s mother, Lakia Culver, looked on during the car wash.

“My son was conceited,” Culver said. “He had every right to be. He was a good-looking young man.”

John Lopez, a classmate of Burruss’s at Santa Rita High School, said he had missed the first day of school after the holiday break to help at the car wash.

Jasmine Higuera, 15, left, and Karissa Reed, 15, broke down Jan. 6 at a car wash benefit to raise money so that out-of-state relatives of Derreck Burrus, 16, could attend his funeral. (Jennifer Pérez/NYT Institute)

“It’s for a great cause,” he said. “He was one of my best friends. Besides, school is not one of my favorite things to do.”

Lopez said Burruss had influenced him to stay in school. If it weren’t for Burruss’s motivating him and helping him to do homework, Lopez said, he might have dropped out.

Almost daily, the pair would go to the William Clements Recreation Center to hang out. “He’d beat me at pool, I’d smash him at basketball and we’d hang out on MySpace,” Lopez said. “Then we’d go home and do the same thing the next day.”

The police said they had no reason to believe that Burruss had ties to gangs in a neighborhood where such affiliations are common. But the same was not the case for Encinas.

According to a 2007 pre-sentencing report, Encinas told a caseworker he was “jumped into the East Side Brown Pride gang in 2003.”

“He reportedly stopped gang activity after the instant offense because he feared going to prison,” the report said.

In the pre-sentencing evaluation, a caseworker said: “On paper, the defendant appears to be a hostile gang member with very little regard for the law and the rights of others. In person, he presents [himself] as a mild-mannered young man with a distinct fear of imprisonment in the adult system.”

One friend who used the profile name “25 to lyfe my homies got 4 Derreck!! Ez” posted a message that said, mess “w!t my fam!l!a ! w!ll k!ll ya.”

Another friend posted on Jan. 6 at 5:58 p.m.: “Omg if it was u id be sooo mad at u!!! Lol but not they wnt do life well Raymond wont cus he still young hel prolly do 20 to 25 cus they charged him 1st degree murder.”

Even before the shooting, Encinas’s friends were angry and defiant.

On Dec. 17, one friend used the profile name “X3 LikE Sleepy told me SnitchES deserve 2 Die X3.” After the Jan. 5 shooting of Burruss, the same profile changed to a screen name of “X3 free lil sleepy!!!!and lil ray!!!esbp 13…X3.”

Clarissa Birdow, 15, Derreck Burruss’ girlfriend of four years, is embraced by Burruss’ cousin, Traquesha Thomas, 13, during a car wash benefit for the family. (Jennifer Pérez/NYT Institute)

Former neighbors of Encinas described a young man who appeared to be living a gang life.

Ahide Montano, 26, a former downstairs neighbor of Encinas at Villa Pacifica apartments on East 29th Street, said Encinas and others wore clothing usually associated with gang members, had tattoos and would be loud at all hours of the night.

“I never got involved with them,” she said.

Montano said they left about four months ago; she believes they were evicted, because she saw the police taking their belongings from their apartment.

At the Godoy home on 29th Street, a man who answered the door and identified himself as a family friend defended Raymond, calling him a “good boy.”

He said the 15-year-old had a child with a longtime girlfriend.

On Jan. 5, when Encinas and Godoy confronted Burruss, Encinas was on parole for an attempted armed robbery committed seven months earlier.

In that case, according to court documents, Encinas and Godoy’s brother, Fernando, had attempted to rob a Tucson man and steal his car.

Court documents said Encinas “poked the victim in the side with a hard, blunt object. The victim told officers Encinas had his hand under his shirt and appeared to be holding a weapon.”

Encinas pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years’ probation on Nov. 14. At that time, he was on probation for a juvenile offense for which records are not available.

Just two months later, as he and Godoy confronted Burruss, he had a gun in his hand again, according to court documents. Godoy told detectives he “knew of gun, but didn’t think Encinas would shoot,” the court documents said.

Burruss and two friends were walking back from a movie theater where Burruss had spent the Christmas money his mother had given him. He was wearing the black sweater with dragons that had been a Christmas present.

Wearing a white T-shirt, black pants and a baseball hat, Encinas came out of an alley and faced Burruss and his two friends.

Encinas later told the police he was going to “fight” with Burruss and handed the pistol to Godoy, but Burruss reached out to grab the .357 silver revolver and it accidentally fired, according to court documents.

He told investigators the shooting was an accident.

The single shot struck Burruss in the abdomen, killing him, according to the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Burruss’s mother recalled the last conversation she had with her son. It was past the curfew he had recently agreed to abide by, but she said she had agreed to let him spend a night at a friend’s house because she wanted to give the maturing teenager more freedom.

“I told him I loved him,” she said. “He told me he loved me.”