A Garden Grove resident was sentenced Friday to 114 years to life in prison for killing a man and wounding two others in Santa Ana in payback for a drug deal gone bad.
Orange County Superior Court Judge John Conley handed down the maximum punishment for Dustin Sean Ross McDonald. He said the “horrible” nature of the crimes outweighed the 25-year-old defendant’s lack of criminal history and mental disorder.
Defense attorney Kira Rubin requested 50 years to life, saying client has a history of mental illness mixed with drug use. But Conley said that would not be a “fair or just” sentence for McDonald, who was convicted June 14 of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder, with sentencing enhancements for firing a gun causing death and attempted murder with premeditation and deliberation.
“It’s not that Mr. McDonald is a horrible person. But what happened that night was horrible,” the judge said. “The crime is so, so bad, compared to his mental condition and lack of criminal record.”
The mother of 23-year-old Aaron Chavez told Conley how police broke the news to her of her son’s death. When her husband rushed home, “the hardest thing to tell him was that Aaron was no longer with us…. We were both inconsolable. After they left would come the difficulty of telling our children that their brother had been murdered,” Sandy Chavez said.
She said about 600 mourners attended the funeral of her son, who was a varsity wrestler and team captain in high school.
“He had an aura that people were drawn to,” she said. “His infectious personality caught the attention of everyone he met. Aaron had the ‘it’ factor. Aaron was a polite, intelligent, well-spoken, talented musician who dreamt to someday produce his own music. Aaron was a talented pianist, keyboardist and vocalist. Aaron was a huge fan of the Doors and he could play and sing all of their songs.”
McDonald set up a meeting about 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 12, 2014, with Chavez and his on-again, off-again girlfriend, 21-year-old Ashlee Caldwell, said Senior Deputy District Attorney Keith Burke.
Caldwell and Chavez were “heavy drug users” who also dealt drugs, according to the prosecutor, who said they would sell “fake drugs” at times.
Caldwell sold McDonald methamphetamine, and later the defendant “reached out to her to let her know the product was no good,” Burke told jurors.
Caldwell “checked with her supplier,” who confirmed it “was bad,” so she “promised to make it up to him,” the prosecutor said.
Before meeting with McDonald, the two picked up 28-year-old Ingrid Gonzalez, a friend who was working at a restaurant and wanted a ride to her boyfriend’s place, Burke said.
Caldwell and the defendant sent text messages to each other before the deadly confrontation, he said.
They met near Main and 12th streets and McDonald approached Caldwell in the driver’s seat of her sedan, Burke said. Caldwell motioned for McDonald to make the drug deal on the passenger side where Chavez was sitting, he said.
As McDonald got over to the passenger side, he pulled out a Beretta 9 mm and opened fire on Chavez, shooting the victim in the face, Burke said.
The defendant got off at least 10 shots, with Caldwell getting hit four times and Gonzalez three times, Burke said. Caldwell was also shot in the face and needed plastic surgery, while Gonzalez sustained nerve damage in one arm and still has issues with her ability to use it, Burke said.
Caldwell told Conley that she “lost two of the most important people in my life that night. Aaron Johnathan Chavez — he was a wonderful boyfriend, my best friend, my happiness, my entire world… The second person I lost that day was me. I barely recognize who I have become.”
Caldwell said when she looks in a mirror, “I see a broken woman. I see the horrific scars that cover my body, but not just any scars. These scars come with a constant reminder of my own nightmare. The same nightmare that almost destroyed me.”
Caldwell said she struggles with “constant anxiety and I’m frequently burdened with flashbacks, which are easily triggered.”
She is “partially deaf” in her left ear and “I still don’t have complete feeling in my right thigh or my index finger,” she said.
Caldwell also said she is plagued with guilt.
“It’s given me guilt, the kind of guilt that eats you up inside,” she said. “The kind that makes you want to take your own life because you don’t want to hurt anymore. Questioning my very existence, blaming myself for everything, thinking everyone resents and blames me too.”
— City News Service