WOODLAND — A West Sacramento man may spend the rest of his life in prison for last year’s shooting of another man in the back in what police and prosecutors labeled a gang-related crime.
Michael Anthony Reyes Jr., 25, was sentenced Wednesday to a 28-year prison term, plus an additional 40 years to life, as relatives of the alleged Broderick Boys gang member wept in Yolo Superior Court Judge Paul Richardson’s courtroom.
Reyes must serve 85 percent of the 28-year sentence before the indeterminate 40-to-life term commences.
He and two other defendants — Lisa Humble, 22, and Liberty Landowski, 21 — were convicted in July for their roles in the Nov. 18, 2014, shooting, which prosecutors said left victim Ernie Sotelo with near-fatal injuries including a cut aorta.
Authorities said Reyes shot at Sotelo, a Broderick Boys dropout, and another person following a confrontation over a prior scuffle between Sotelo and Reyes’ stepfather. Sotelo, who was riding his bicycle away from Reyes, was struck three times in the back.
“This was an egregious case where the defendant shot six times in broad daylight in the middle of a residential neighborhood,” prosecuting attorney Amanda Zambor said at Wednesday’s court hearing.
Landowski and Humble were found guilty of being accessories to the crime. Landowski was said to have driven Reyes from the shooting scene and concealed the vehicle, and assisted Humble in concealing Reyes in a Sacramento County motel room and relaying police scanner traffic to him as officers searched for the shooter.
Humble had possession of the loaded handgun Reyes had used, according to police. All three defendants were convicted of participating in criminal street gang activity during the incident.
About a half-dozen of Reyes’ relatives attended the sentencing hearing, where his grandmother, Linda James, pleaded with Richardson to reconsider the gang conviction “because I don’t want him to go away for the rest of his life.”
James said while much trial testimony focused on the gang-related tattoos on Reyes’ face and head, her grandson never had them before a 2012 stint in jail.
“I asked him why he did that. … He said he did it for protection,” James said in court. “He said you sometimes have to pick sides — I still don’t know what that means. I don’t know who the gang members are, but I really don’t believe that (the shooting) was gang-related.”
Reyes’ defense attorney James Granucci argued for a lesser sentence of six years plus 32 years to life, calling it “a punishment that fits the crime. … It gives my client the ability to rehabilitate himself in state prison.”
Richardson declined, however, and when the discussion turned to victim restitution to cover the costs of Sotelo’s damaged belongings, Reyes unleashed a string of obscenities and demanded to leave the courtroom.
“I’m ready to go,” Reyes told a nearby bailiff. Granucci said he plans to appeal the conviction.
Humble and Landowski also were sentenced this week — Landowski to three years’ probation, Humble to three years, four months in state prison.
While the attorneys for both women contended their clients played only minimal roles in the crime, Richardson noted that both women demonstrated a disregard for the law that continued even into the courtroom, where the defendants laughed and joked throughout the trial proceedings.
“There was almost a sitting-around-the-swimming pool kind of attitude among the defendants,” Richardson said during Monday’s sentencing. Humble, he added, “was very much a collaborator, in the court’s view. She was fully engaged in protecting those who may have been more deeply involved.”
The judge found Landowski worthy of probation, but he imposed a five-year suspended prison term “to try to impart the seriousness of the situation,” he said. The prison time would come into effect if Landowski violates her probation terms.
“You’re going to be given an opportunity to show the court, your family, your community what you can do,” Richardson told Landowski.
A fourth defendant in the case, Eric Lovett, is still awaiting trial, his case having been severed from the other three defendants during the trial’s jury selection phase. He has pleaded not guilty to allegations of being an accessory following the crime, criminal street gang activity and making a threatening gesture toward Sotelo as he testified during a pretrial hearing.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene