Killer caught after officers recognize a murder scene depicted in his chest tattoo

A gang member has been convicted of a murder that went unsolved for seven years – after police discovered a detailed tattoo of the killing inked on the gunman’s chest.

Anthony Garcia’s telltale tattoo has a man with the body of a peanut – gang slang for a rival gang member – being hit by bullets and falling back towards the liquor store.

Garcia’s nickname was ‘Chopper’ and a miniature helicopter is depicted raining shots down on the scene.


Anthony Garcia¿s tattoo has a man with the body of a peanut ¿ slang for a rival gang member ¿ being hit by bullets and falling back towards a liquor store. Garcia's nickname was Chopper and a mini helicopter is firing shots

The tattoo even showed the Christmas lights that were hanging from the roof of the liquor store where 23-year-old John Juarez was shot in the 2004 murder.

And it included a street lamp and sign from across the street.

The whole scene was sketched out under the chilling banner of ‘RIVERA KILLS’, a reference to the Los Angeles Latino street gang, Rivera-13.

Police revealed today how they only made the breakthrough by chance when homicide investigator Kevin Lloyd was flipping through snapshots of tattooed gang members.

Out of the blue, Garcia’s tattoo caught his attention because it reminded him of a murder case he helped probe years earlier.

The detective then helped set up a sting to trick the 25-year-old into confessing to the killing.

Garcia had only been arrested on a minor traffic offence and his bare chest was photographed because gang graffiti artists often mark their own bodies with the same signatures they spray on buses and storefronts.


The liquor store where 23-year-old John Juarez was shot in the 2004 murder, also seen in Garcia's tattoo


The tattoo shows the Christmas lights that were hanging from the roof of the liquor store at the time of the murder

Gang members also sometimes have tattoos that could help link them to a crime.

At the time, the tattoo meant nothing to the officers who arrested Garcia and he was let go.

Homicide Lt. Dave Dolson said it was unheard of for a tattoo to lay out a detailed crime scene.

‘I haven’t seen it before and I haven’t heard of anything like it, either,’ he told the Los Angeles Times.

After Lloyd recognised the mural, sheriff’s detectives arrested Garcia for the shooting and officers, posing as gang members, got a confession from the gang member who bragged to them about carrying out the shooting.