The California Supreme Court refused Wednesday to review the case of a man and woman convicted in connection with a shooting in which two 15-year-old boys were killed and two other teens were wounded in South Los Angeles on Mother’s Day in 2018.
Nancy De La Rocha, now 33, and Edwin Federico Loza, now 26, are serving life prison terms without the possibility of parole for their convictions on two counts of first-degree murder for the May 13, 2018, shootings of La’Marrion Upchurch of Long Beach and Monyae Jackson of Los Angeles in the 300 block of West Manchester Avenue near the 110 Freeway, along with two counts of attempted murder involving the shootings of two other 15-year-old boys who were injured and one count of conspiracy to commit murder.
A third defendant, Cristian Macias, now 26, was also convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. His appeal was rejected last year, with the state Supreme Court refusing last December to hear the case against him.
In a June 27 ruling, a three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal found that “substantial evidence supports the determination that De La Rocha shared Macias’s intent to kill, or attempt to kill the four victims and that she intended to assist him in carrying out the offenses.”
The justices noted that “De La Rocha’s conduct after the shooting — driving her confederates away from the scene, parking in a location where they could wipe down the vehicle and dispose of evidence, and then walking away from the vehicle with her fellow perpetrators — likewise supported the finding of intent.”
The panel also found that “Loza’s presence before, during and after the shootings, his encouragement of the crimes, his companionship with his confederates, and his conduct around the time of the incident, demonstrated that he intended to aid and abet, and did aid and abet the murders and attempted murders.”
In his closing argument during the trio’s trial, Deputy District Attorney Brian Chang told jurors that the slayings were the “result of a calculated plan to kill by the defendants,” alleging that Macias and Loza were gang members and that De La Rocha served as the driver, and that a Los Angeles police officer believed she was a gang associate.
The prosecutor told jurors that De La Rocha was initially confronted by a man who pointed a gun at her at a taco stand to get some food. Chang said Loza left to arm himself with a weapon, and that Macias had a separate confrontation with the four teenage boys in which a gun that wound up being a pellet gun was pointed at him before Macias ran away and got into De La Rocha’s black SUV.
Of the defendants, Chang said, “It’s a planned execution. … They hunted for them.”
“They utilized a car to get the jump on them … to surprise the victims,” the prosecutor said, telling jurors that the four teenagers were shot while running away.
Attorneys for all three defendants countered during the trial that there was insufficient evidence to prove the case against their clients.
Macias’ trial attorney, Michael Waldinger, said the only reasonable explanation was that Macias was “seeking refuge” and “seeking safety” after the confrontation with the teenagers, and maintained that his client was not the one who opened fire on the youths. He said his client’s subsequent statement involving the shooting to someone placed in a jail cell with him did not match up to the evidence.
De La Rocha’s trial attorney, Angela Berry, told the jury that her client is a mother of three and a nursing student who “sees the good in people” and “gives them rides,” and said the prosecution had failed to prove that the gunman emerged from De La Rocha’s vehicle, telling jurors that there were numerous black SUVs in the area around the time of the shooting.
“There’s so much doubt here,” she said, noting that she also disputed the characterization of De La Rocha as a gang associate.
Loza’s trial attorney, Robert Schwartz, told jurors that his client was “in the wrong place at the wrong time.” He noted that Loza subsequently told someone placed in his jail cell that “I didn’t expect it.”
In his rebuttal argument, the prosecutor countered that Loza was referring to seeing a gun pointed at De La Rocha, not about the shooting of the teens minutes later.
Upchurch died from a gunshot wound to the back the day of the shooting, and Jackson died two days later as a result of a gunshot wound through the abdomen, according to records from the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner.
Macias was arrested by Los Angeles police just over a month after the shooting, while De La Rocha was taken into custody in September 2018 and Loza was arrested in November 2018. They have remained behind bars since then.