A gang member who opened fire on seven people outside a San Jacinto home, killing one, while wearing a GPS monitoring device that eventually led to his capture was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Salvador Venegas, 38, was convicted more than two years ago for the Feb. 5, 2014, killing of 37-year-old Runar Claus of Hemet, who was shot in the driveway of a residence where he was talking with a group of friends.
Riverside Superior Court Judge Otis Sterling handed down the sentence Tuesday at the Larson Justice Center in Indio, according to John Hall, a spokesman for the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.
Venegas was found guilty of murder and six counts of attempted murder, and jurors found true a special circumstance allegation of committing the murder to benefit a criminal street gang, triggering the second phase of the trial, in which the panel weighed whether he should face the death penalty or life imprisonment.
The district attorney initially sought a death sentence in the case, but jurors opted for life imprisonment instead, Hall said.
During the trial, prosecutors said Venegas and an unidentified second person approached the group and asked “Where you from?,” then began firing on them before anyone could answer. Claus was struck in the abdomen and taken to Hemet Valley Hospital, where he later died.
Venegas was arrested in Hemet about three weeks after the killing following a short pursuit of a vehicle in which he was a passenger.
Investigators said Venegas was placed at the shooting scene through data recovered from a GPS ankle monitor, which he was required to wear as part of a bail agreement stemming from a gun possession case.
The criminal complaint alleges that Venegas was previously convicted in 2000 of attempted murder and sentenced to 15 years and four months in prison in a case out of Los Angeles County. Further details on that case were not available.
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