A Home Gardens gang member who helped kill an outcast lured to his death by the defendant was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
A Murrieta jury in June convicted 24-year-old Eric “Silent” Chaparro of first-degree murder and found true special circumstance allegations of killing for the benefit of a criminal street gang and lying in wait in the 2020 death of Antonio “Omen” Anaya, 25.
During a hearing at the Southwest Justice Center on Friday, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Stephen Gallon imposed the sentence required under state law for the offenses.
According to the District Attorney’s Office, Anaya was alienated from fellow members of the Corona Varrio Locos Matadores in January 2020 after an unexplained falling out.
Chaparro was among Anaya’s prior associates, and the two had been on good terms, prosecutors said in a trial brief.
On Jan. 26, 2020, the gang hierarchy decided Anaya was a liability, and one of the members angling to become a leader, then-15-year-old Horacio Monroy, volunteered to be a hit man, with Chaparro’s help, the brief said.
Monroy’s case was handled in juvenile court, and its disposition was unavailable.
Court papers said that he and Chaparro drove around most of the afternoon of Jan. 26 in the latter’s Toyota Scion, waiting for an opportunity to confront Anaya, who ultimately went to a gang hangout at 3710 Windsong St., near Harlow Avenue, in Home Gardens.
Prosecutors said that Chaparro talked Anaya out of the house and into the driveway to speak with him there.
Monroy allegedly hid in shrubs nearby and waited for an opportunity to open fire with a .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun. According to prosecutors, Anaya immediately became suspicious about Chaparro’s motives and pulled a 9mm pistol, prompting Monroy to begin firing his gun.
Chaparro ran toward his Toyota as Monroy allegedly fired multiple rounds, gravely wounding Anaya, who returned fire, striking Chaparro’s vehicle before collapsing at the end of the driveway, according to the prosecution.
The defendants fled as residents of surrounding homes called 911.
Anaya was taken to Riverside Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Sheriff’s Central Homicide Unit detectives spent nearly seven months piecing together what occurred, relying on area residents’ statements, security surveillance videos obtained from businesses in the immediate vicinity of Windsong and Chaparro’s mobile phone records to amass sufficient evidence to obtain arrest warrants in August 2020.
Chaparro had a misdemeanor conviction for driving under the influence, but he had no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.
Information regarding his co-defendant was unavailable.