San Diego
A wrongful death suit has been filed against the man who fatally shot a 10-year-old girl in Logan Heights last year while she was on an errand for her mother.
Jose Ruiz Maldonado, 46, was named in the suit made public Friday in San Diego Superior Court. It was filed by the girl’s mother, Maria Villanueva.
Sonia Cano was going to the market when she was shot in the chest as she walked in the alley behind Maldonado’s house on K Street on Sept. 27, 1986.
Maldonado, who pleaded guilty Dec. 18 to involuntary manslaughter, was sentenced Feb. 19 to one year in County Jail and fined $700. Recently he sought to have the sentence modified, but a judge refused the request.
Maldonado said he was target-practicing in his backyard after he had been drinking, adding that he didn’t know the girl had been shot until police arrived at his house.
At his sentencing, Maldonado asked the girl’s mother to forgive him.
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