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It's a small gang subset mostly operating out of North Highlands with only nine validated members, but two of them are charged with murder in the shooting deaths of three bicyclists last year in Rancho Cordova. On Friday, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael A. Savage ordered the two, Saul "Sniper" Isidro-Aucencio, 25, and Francisco Ignacio "Spider" Delgado, 21, to stand trial for murder in the Feb. 13, 2011, midday triple killings on Malaga Way. In his testimony Friday, Sacramento sheriff's gang Detective Kevin Steed said "S.U.T." members had come under investigation in Roseville and Lincoln in Placer County before the arrests of Isidro-Aucencio and Delgado in the Rancho Cordova shootings. The day of the killings, authorities say, the two defendants were hunting for a carload of East Side Piru gang members whom they suspected of having assaulted Isidro-Aucencio in Delgado's Rancho Cordova apartment complex earlier in the day. While they were out on the hunt, they came across Robert Corpos, 20, Richard Ward, 16, and Jamir Miller, 15, riding bikes on Malaga Way. The threesome was not close to matching descriptions of the four men sought by the two, investigators said. But Steed testified that Delgado identified one of the cyclists as having cut him in the back of his head with a knife in an earlier incident. Sheriff's officials say Delgado, who was driving, slowed the vehicle to walking speed while "Sniper" let loose on the three with a rifle. Steed testified that Corpos belonged to a gang and that Ward and Miller were associated with one. Investigators say Corpos was carrying a .44 revolver that he had pulled out as he tried to hide behind a tree to shoot back. The fatal shooting bore all the fingerprints of a typical gang retaliation, according to Steed's testimony. "Mr. Aucencio was disrespected by people he considered to be East Side Piru gang members," the detective testified under questioning from Deputy District Attorney Donell Slivka. "He was assaulted at an apartment complex and told Mr. Delgado about that. When gang members are disrespected or assaulted, they are compelled to respond with violence, and in this case, I believe Mr. Delgado and Mr. Aucencio were seeking retribution against rival gang members for the assault on Mr. Aucencio." Failure to respond to signs of disrespect, Steed said, "is a sign of weakness." If the perceived disrespect is not addressed, "you are prone to being disciplined by your own people," Steed testified. Defense attorneys Kyle Knapp for Isidro-Aucencio and Olaf Hedberg for Delgado asked only a few questions each of Steed and did not argue against the judge's holding order. They declined after the hearing to discuss their possible defense strategies. Savage set an April 10 trial date for the two alleged members of the "S.U.T."
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