A 36-year-old man was sentenced Friday to 34 years to life in prison for a gang-related shooting and convenience store robbery in Santa Ana nearly six years ago.
Erick Benitez Mendoza was convicted Dec. 4 of shooting a man in the chest and upper arm, while also grazing his head, about 10 p.m. March 6, 2020, in front of an apartment building at 1107 W. Highland St., between Bristol and Flower streets, prosecutors said in a trial brief.
The following night Mendoza was pulled over in the same car, which was registered to his mother, that he and two others fled in after the shooting, prosecutors said. Mendoza claimed to be in bed at the time of the shooting, but cellphone records indicated he was in the area, prosecutors said.
Mendoza got into a conflict with his wife about 2 a.m. June 6, 2020, when she brought shoes that he needed to him. Afterward she drove him to a convenience store to buy beer but he stayed in the car because he was worried police were nearby and he had a gun on him, prosecutors said.
After the couple got the beer, his wife drove him back to 950 W. Bishop St. as he complained about “issues in his life,” prosecutors said. The two got into an argument because he was receiving text messages from another woman and when she confronted him about it he grew enraged and pointed a gun at her, saying, “I’m going to kill you,” prosecutors said.
When his wife threatened to call police he ran away, prosecutors said.
On June 25, 2020, police confronted him at a car wash where officers found a gun, 1.48 grams of heroin and .53 grams of methamphetamine, prosecutors said.
On July 11, 2020, he pulled out a gun at Saddleback Liquor in Santa Ana and ordered a clerk to open a cash register, prosecutors said. Mendoza snatched cash and ordered the clerk to the floor, where he demanded the victim’s watch, prosecutors said.
On Jan. 7, 2021, he hurled a gun out of the window of a car he was riding in when the driver was pulled over, prosecutors said.
Deputy District Attorney Nathaniel Barrett argued for 35 years to life in prison in a sentencing brief.
Barrett noted the defendant was on parole and had only been out of prison for five days before the attempted murder.
Mendoza “immediately violated parole and committed over a dozen felonies over the span of nine months, over five separate dates of violation,” Barrett said. “It is difficult to imagine a less satisfactory performance while on probation.”
Throughout his adulthood, Mendoza “has engaged in an escalating series of crimes while actively participating in a criminal street gang,” the prosecutor said. “The defendant was a one-man crime wave over the nine months he was out of custody from March 2020 to January 2021.”
While in custody in February 2022 he was “written up” for possessing a shank, Barrett said.
For the July 11, 2020, robbery Mendoza was convicted of attempted murder, two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, criminal threats, possession of a gun by a felon, possession of a controlled substance while armed, possession of a gun in a school zone, robbery, assault with a firearm, and two counts of possession of a gun by a felon, all felonies.
Jurors also found true sentencing enhancements for attempted premeditated murder, the personal use of a gun.