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Two gang members convicted of the March 2012 shooting death of a 17-year-old boy in the Whittier area were sentenced on Thursday to potential life prison terms.
Superior Court Judge John Torribio ordered Eudiel Eddie Lopez, 21, to serve 50 years to life in state prison, while co-defendant Daniel Cesar Stopani, 20, was sentenced to 40 years to life.
The two were convicted Sept. 4 for the March 26, 2012, killing of Michael Soto.
Jurors convicted Lopez of first-degree murder and Stopani of second- degree murder, and found true gang and gun allegations against the pair.
The two men approached Soto near Painter Avenue and Mulberry Drive, where Stopani punched Soto and then Lopez shot the teenage boy several times, according to Deputy District Attorney Brock Lunsford.
Lopez had a gang-related exchange with the victim a month before the killing, according to the prosecutor. He was arrested several hours after the shooting.
Stopani was arrested in 2013 and charged in connection with the killing.
— City News Service