A man who killed a USC jazz student during an attempted robbery just blocks from the university campus nearly six years ago pleaded no contest Monday to first-degree murder.
Ivan Hernandez, 29, also admitted that he personally used a gun in the March 2019 killing of 21-year-old Victor McElhaney, whose mother was a member of the Oakland City Council at the time her son was killed.
Sentencing was scheduled for April 30. According to the District Attorney’s Office, prosecutors will ask that he be sentenced to 35 years to life in prison.
McElhaney was shot in the head just after midnight March 10, 2019, near Maple Avenue and Adams Boulevard and died at a hospital.
The victim, who was a student at USC’s Thornton School of Music, was with a group of friends when they were approached by three or four men in their 20s during an attempted robbery that led to the shooting, authorities said.
McElhaney was part of the USC jazz studies program with an interest in the relationship between music and social and political movements. He also mentored young musicians and taught at the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music.
Shortly after the killing, his mother, Lynette Gibson McElhaney, said her son “believed that music could heal the world of violence and sickness and addiction.”
The year after his death, USC announced the creation of The Victor McElhaney Memorial Jazz Drumming Endowed Scholarship, which is awarded annually to support an undergraduate drummer who reflects the spirit and ideals he represented.
McElhaney was an active member of USC’s Center for Black Cultural and Student Affairs, a member of the USC Thornton’s Afro Latin American Jazz Ensemble and various student combos. He hoped to utilize the power of music as a tool for social activism, according to the university.
“This no contest plea ensures that the individual responsible for the senseless and tragic murder of Victor McElhaney will face the consequence of his actions,” District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement announcing the plea. “Victor was a promising young 21-year-old university student, a talented drummer and active member of USC’s Center for Black Cultural and Student Affairs, whose life was cut short by an act of pure violence. Our office will aggressively seek accountability for those who threaten the safety of our communities, and we will not tolerate such heinous crimes.”