A state appeals court panel has upheld a second man’s conviction for the apparently gang-related death of an innocent bystander struck by gunfire near a taco truck in Long Beach just over five years ago.
In a 26-page ruling released this week, the three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal noted that Jacquise Carlton Wright provided a “detailed account of the shooting” to an undercover jailhouse operative.
Wright, now 36, and co-defendant Tyquan Markeith Benson, now 30, were convicted of first-degree murder for the Dec. 4, 2020, shooting that left Alejandra Martinez dead.
Jurors also convicted the two of one count each of attempted murder, assault with a semiautomatic firearm, shooting from a motor vehicle, along with finding Benson guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Wright is serving a 28-year-to-life state prison sentence.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James D. Otto said at Wright’s July 2024 sentencing that he found him to “have some lesser culpability” than Benson.
Benson — who had a 2014 conviction for burglary — was sentenced in 2023 to 50 years to life plus an additional 17 years and eight months in state prison.
In a ruling last September, a state appeals court panel upheld Benson’s conviction. The California Supreme Court subsequently denied a defense petition seeking its review of the case.
During Wright’s trial, Deputy District Attorney Robert Song told jurors that Martinez — a 36-year-old mother of three — had stopped at a taco truck after work and was fatally shot in crossfire created by Wright and Benson while a group of people were “boxed in and trapped” in the parking lot near Magnolia Avenue and Anaheim Street.
The prosecutor said it was “clear that one of two people killed Alejandra Martinez,” telling the panel that it was either Benson or Wright who fired from separate vehicles after a confrontation with gang rivals.
“Even though we cannot definitely say which person shot (her) … in either scenario, you can find him guilty of murder,” the deputy district attorney said in his closing argument.
A third person — whose identity is unknown — fired from the back of the taco truck in what was an apparent attempt to shoot back at Benson as he left the parking lot, but was in the wrong position to have shot and killed Martinez, the prosecutor said.
Wright’s trial attorney, George Moyer, countered that his client “did not shoot a firearm” and did not kill Martinez.
He said Wright tried to ease tensions with people who might have been rivals in rival gang territory and attempted to avoid conflict and get the food the men had ordered.
Wright’s lawyer called Benson a “hothead” and told jurors that being associated with him “doesn’t make Jacquise Wright guilty.”
Wright’s attorney said the evidence “all points toward Jacquise Wright’s innocence.”
In a statement released shortly after the shooting, the Long Beach Police Department said detectives believed a gang-related dispute escalated into a shooting and that “the victim was not the intended target.”
A female juvenile was also struck in the upper body, but recovered, police said.
Wright and Benson were arrested about 2 1/2 months after the shooting and have remained behind bars since then.