Neighborhood much in news 'normally boring'

It's boring.

That is the way Bruce Gaither, who spends time at his nephew Tim Garrison's home on 25th Street and Donna Avenue, described why he liked the neighborhood.

The neighborhood, located south of 24th Street and bounded by Donna and Barbara, has been in the news an unusual amount lately after six people were murdered at 2037 E. La Mesa St. Those who live in the neighborhood say that incident is not representative of life in the area, but it could also be a sign of changing times.

"It's a good place to live," said Manuel Villaneda, who was tending to the plants in his front yard on 24th Place on a warm afternoon.

Walking in Yuma on a summer day can be a lonely exercise. No street is busy when the temperatures are peaking at 110 degrees, but there is always little activity in Garrison's neighborhood.

Cars are parked on both sides as houses of all different colors and styles sit side by side. The only other person walking around on this day was the mailman.

Cesar Cerrato has lived in the home on 25th Place since 1990. He called it a quiet, nice neighborhood. However, for his family, things have changed since the murders.

"At night, we'll leave all of the lights on and lock all of the doors and windows," he said. He planned to install some motion lights for the home.

In the records kept by the Yuma County Assessor's Office, this neighborhood is known as Desert View Manor.

The appraised value of the homes in the neighborhood is between $61,000 and $103,000, according to residential appraiser Jeremy Davis.

"They're probably lower than middle class," Davis said. "The homes aren't of average quality because they're older."

Davis said most were likely built in the 1950s. The neighborhood became part of the city in 1959, according to city spokesman James Stover.

The recent mean sale price for the homes was $74,000. But the sample size is small - there have only been 13 sales in the past two years, according to Davis.

Those interviewed for this story said that most people owned their homes and, generally, there was not a lot of turnover.

In 2003, the home at 2037 E. La Mesa St. sold for $103,000. "That was the highest sale in that area," Davis said.

"I'm not seeing too many rentals on (La Mesa) street," Davis said. "Mostly, they are owner-occupied."

2037 was owner-occupied, according to assessor's records. Yuma Police Department spokesman Clint Norred said the home was being used as a rental property at the time of the murders.

A caller on 911 tapes released by police said that the family in the home had only been there for one to two weeks.

Davis said it is difficult for the assessor's office to know who is renting if they do not come in and fill out a rental residential form. "Sometimes, things get lost in the paperwork," he said.

While nothing much has happened in the past in the neighborhood, some long-term residents might be able to recall an eerie coincidence involving La Mesa Street.

In 1978, the brutal Tison gang went on a murderous rampage after Gary Tison and Randy Greenawalt, both convicted murderers, were busted out of the Florence state prison by Tison's three sons.

A Yuma family was murdered around July 30 by the gang about 70 miles north of Yuma. John Lyons, 24, Donna Lyons, 23, and their 1-year-old son, Christopher, were murdered along with a niece, Teresa Tyson, 16. Originally from Omaha, the Lyonses had come to Yuma when John, a Marine, was transferred to the base here from El Toro, Calif.

The connections are that both were multiple homicides with Yuma families - but the coincidence goes one disturbing layer deeper: the Lyons family, according to Sun archives, lived at 2070 E. La Mesa St. - just down the street from the home where the recent homicides occurred.

A knock on the door at 2070, a white home with green trim, yielded only the sound of dogs barking Thursday afternoon.

While she was watching her grandchildren, Pat Ellsworth talked about how her home on 26th Street had been right in the middle of two recent amazing incidents: the June 15 Harrier crash and the murders.

She said these two incidents, occurring less than two weeks, were more astounding than anything that had occurred in the area in the past 44 years. She said the neighborhood is changing.

"I don't feel as secure," she said. "It's not just the neighborhood, it's what's going on in the world."

Norred said generally there are not too many calls for police to respond to the neighborhood. Since the first of the year, police have had a total of 25 calls to the 2000 block of East La Mesa Street.

Thirteen of those calls were for case follow-up work, three were for runaway juveniles and two were for domestic violence. One call each was for credit card fraud, narcotic overdose, miscellaneous event, arrest on warrant, missing juvenile and juvenile loitering.

And, of course, there is one call for shots fired in the city. That call has made some people uneasy in the area.

Gaither said the neighborhood will not change as a result of the murders. He called the crime an isolated incident as he and Garrison smoked cigarettes near the carport.

"The mayor and the city council want us to grow. That comes with it," Gaither said. "With more people, you've got more murders and more craziness. People are getting nuttier."

Ellsworth said those in the neighborhood had to expect that there would be some change over the years.

The faces and houses change as people move in and out. But Ellsworth said she is not moving.

"It's a little scary when it gets so close," she said. "But we've been here so long."

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Jeffrey Gautreaux can be reached at jgautreaux@yumasun.com or 539-6858.