Orlando domena

Even as city officials reached out to help him, he was being arrested again and again on charges ranging from weapons violations to assault and robbery. Days before he made headlines by leading a group of protesters into the mayor's office to complain about police harassment, he shot a man in the leg. Now Orlando, 21, is in the Denver County Jail awaiting trial on murder and assault charges stemming from a gang-related drive-by shooting. And as he bides his time with his other homies in lockup, Orlando's would-be saviors have been left to deal with the political repercussions of coming to his rescue.

When mayoral contender Mary DeGroot accused incumbent Wellington Webb, police chief Dave Michaud and one of the chief's aides of being soft on gangs, Orlando was served up as Exhibit A. Michaud now admits that his good intentions may have been misplaced in Orlando's case. Maybe he did make an effort to try. But I do think he's a manipulator. I think a lot of [gang members] are.

He's charismatic. They try to save him from his environment and all this bullshit. But all the time, he's playing them. He was like a lot of kids growing up in the Curtis Park and Fuller Park neighborhoods--the product of a single-parent home, often at loose ends because his mother had to work to support the family. To many of those kids--including Orlando and his two brothers, Antonio and Angelo--the Salvation Army's Red Shield Center served as a combination home, haven, recreation center and social circle.

The Domena boys often could be found there playing basketball after school and on weekends. Watching over them was a staff hoping to provide diversion, direction and a dose of Christian values. A towering man with a booming Barry White voice, Kelly took the neighborhood kids under his wing.

He urged them to succeed and didn't judge them when they failed, an attitude formed by his own experiences: He was a good kid who went bad, a college student who turned to crime and, ultimately, an ex-con who found God. It was through his capacity as a Red Shield counselor that Kelly came to know Orlando.

When he was little, he used to run around Red Shield crying when he didn't get his way. The trio started up the Rollin' 30 Crips, named after an L. They claimed as their turf an area roughly encompassing Downing to York streets and East 22nd to 38th avenues. The Domena family lived at the heart of Crips territory.

If Orlando had had a strong male role model, says James Wooten, a former schoolmate who is also "Pooch" Jones's brother, perhaps things would have turned out differently.

But Orlando's father was absent. Even those people who profess to know the family well say they never saw the man. And Orlando's mother who couldn't be reached for comment seemed unable to control the boy. Full text. A photograph taken as he left the courthouse afterward showed Givens running away from a photographer, his back to the camera. Antonio Domena and Long were arrested last week. They are scheduled to appear in court on Friday to be advised of the charges against them. It's not clear whether they have attorneys yet.

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