Baby-faced gang banger Prospero Guadarrama was sentenced today to
life in state prison without the possibility of parole for murdering two
rivals and leaving a third in a coma after an execution-style gang
shooting eight days before Christmas 2006. Sixteen at the time of the shootings, Guadarrama was tried as an adult and convicted by a jury last month of two felony counts of special circumstances murder for the
benefit of a criminal street gang, one felony count of attempted murder,
and one felony count of street terrorism.
]
The sentencing enhancements
for criminal street gang activity and the vicarious discharge of a
firearm as a gang member causing death and bodily injury were also found
true for Guadarrama, who is now 21 and the sixth defendant to be convicted and sentenced in the case.
On Dec. 17, 2006, Guadarrama joined fellow gang members Juan Roldan, Norberto Hernandez, Oiram
Ayala and Angel Garcia on a murder ride with Marco Perez behind the wheel. Their cargo included two firearms. They stopped in a rival gang neighborhood and eventually before 14-year-old Angel
Secundino, 15-year-old Gabriel Perez and 16-year-old Fernando Garcia.
Secundino and Gabriel Perez were killed on the spot execution-style with head shots. Garcia, who was shot in the stomach, was left in a coma and would go on to have seven surgeries. His attackers split.
Besides that grisly crime, three of those convicted in the same case as Guadarrama were part of a gang-related
shooting two days earlier. On Dec. 15, 2006, Ayala, Hernandez, and
Roldan exchanged gunfire with a group of gang rivals. Gumaro Rojas,
then a 47-year-old street vendor selling corn on the cob from a cart,
took a shot to his back in the crossfire. The bullet penetrated his
spinal cord, and he remains
paralyzed from the waist down to this day.
[
Roldan, 21, who was a juvenile at the time of the crime and prosecuted
as an adult, was convicted by a jury on Sept. 30, 2010, of two felony
counts of special circumstances murder for committing multiple murders
for the benefit of a criminal street gang, one felony count of attempted
murder, two felony counts of street terrorism, one felony count of
assault with a firearm, and sentencing enhancements for criminal street
gang activity and the vicarious discharge of a firearm as a gang member
causing death and bodily injury. He was sentenced Feb. 18 to life
in state prison without the possibility of parole.
Hernandez, 26, was found guilty by a jury March 26, 2009, of the same
charges as Roldan. He was sentenced June 5, 2009, to two life sentences
in state prison without the possibility of parole plus an additional 93
years to life.
Ayala, 22, who was a juvenile at the time of the crime and prosecuted as
an adult, was found guilty by a jury Sept. 30, 2010, of the same
charges as Roldan and was sentenced Oct. 22, 2010, to life in state
prison without the possibility of parole.
Perez, 18, was found guilty by a jury June 25, 2009, of two felony
counts of special circumstances murder for the benefit of a criminal
street gang, one felony count of attempted murder, one felony count of
street terrorism, and sentencing enhancements for criminal street gang
activity and the vicarious discharge of a firearm as a gang member
causing death and bodily injury. He was sentenced Oct. 23, 2009, to 50
years to life in state prison.
Garcia, 24, was convicted by a jury Jan. 26, 2009, of two felony counts
of special circumstances murder for committing multiple murders for the
benefit of a criminal street gang, one felony count of attempted murder,
one felony count of street terrorism, and sentencing enhancements for
criminal street gang activity and the vicarious discharge of a firearm
as a gang member causing death and bodily injury. He was sentenced May
29, 2009, to two life sentences in state prison without the possibility
of parole plus an additional 50 years to life.
Previous coverage:
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.
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