Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: 04/13/06

Contact person(s):

Media Coordinator, Donna Edwards - 565-3099 Media Spokesperson, Assistant District Attorney Larry Scoufos

Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California

GANG MURDER DEFENDANTS SENTENCED TO LIFE TERMS

District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua announced today that the final two of five defendants charged in a gang murder were sentenced yesterday. Pete Amante, Patrick Higuera, Rogelio Cardenas, and Rico Lopez were all convicted by a jury in August 2005, of first degree murder for the killing of twenty-two year old Ignacio Medina Gomez. The jury also found that they were acting for the benefit of a criminal street gang at the time of the murder. The fifth defendant, Mario Ochoa-Gonzalez, was convicted of felony Accessory to Murder and was also found to have been acting for the benefit of a criminal street gang.

The victim was attacked and stabbed approximately 40 times after the five defendants armed themselves with knives when they heard a whistle they associated with a rival gang and saw the victim dressed in a rival gang color walking his bike along a creek pathway.

The Honorable Raima Ballinger, the Superior Court Judge who presided over the trial, was the sentencing judge. In October 2005, she sentenced Ochoa-Gonzalez to seven years in state prison for his involvement. Last week Higuera and Lopez were sentenced to state prison for life without the possibility of parole.

Yesterday, Amante was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole and Cardenas was sentenced to 35 years-to-life. Chief Deputy District Attorney Spencer Brady, the trial prosecutor, argued that Cardenas was extremely dangerous and should be sentenced to life without possibility of parole as well. Because Cardenas was a minor at the time of the offense, the judge had the discretion to sentence him to the lesser sentence.

District Attorney Passalacqua stated, "This is yet another example why gang violence will not be tolerated in our community. This was a tragic and senseless act in which the lives of the victim, his family and friends and the lives of the defendants and their families and friends are forever changed due to nothing more than the sound of a whistle or the color of clothing."

Prosecutor Brady was assisted by D.A. Investigator Les Vanderpool, Legal Assistant Dava Kohlman, Legal Secretary Elaine Nickison and Information Specialist John Magsamen.