A state appeals court panel on Wednesday upheld the murder convictions of two gang members in an April 2009 shooting near a taco truck in Lennox, where a man was killed and five other people were wounded.
The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense’s challenge to the admission of three secretly recorded jailhouse conversations between Deandre Brandon Riser and Olton Vernell Drake.
Each was convicted of one count of first-degree murder in the April 29, 2009, shooting death of Amador Cendejas-Cortes, 59, of Los Angeles in the 10800 block of Inglewood Avenue, as well as eight counts of attempted murder involving people by the taco truck.
A boy was among the five wounded.
Riser and Spry went into rival gang territory after being involved earlier that day in a fight on their own turf. None of the victims, however, had any gang affiliation, Deputy District Attorney Teresa Magno said after the two were convicted.
Riser was sentenced in November 2012 to 395 years to life in prison, while Drake was given 338 years and eight months to life behind bars.
The appellate court justices also upheld the conviction of getaway driver Helen Spry, who was not a gang member, writing that the prosecution “amply established that Spry was the getaway driver” and that she knew why she was driving Riser and Drake into rival gang territory.
Spry, convicted of the same charges as Riser and Drake, is serving a 50- year-to-life sentence.
— City News Service