22 Years in 2nd Feud Slaying : Justice: Ambrosio Villagrana is sentenced for killing Jorge Cuevas in a fight resulting from the slaying of Jorge’s brother in 1983.

A Van Nuys man was sentenced Thursday to 22 years to life in prison for killing a man in the sudden flare-up of a long-running feud, after earlier killing the victim’s brother and wounding a third brother.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Darlene Schempp gave Ambrosio Villagrana, 27, the maximum term for killing Jorge Rafael Cuevas in 1987. A jury convicted Villagrana in March of first-degree murder in the death of Cuevas, 30.

But before sentencing Villagrana, Schempp reduced the charge from first-degree murder to second-degree, saying she did not believe the killing was premeditated.

In May, 1983, four years before he killed Jorge Cuevas, Villagrana killed Cuevas’ older brother, Sergio Cuevas and wounded another brother, David Cuevas, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Edward Nison.

Villagrana shot David Cuevas during an argument, Nison said, then killed Sergio as he tried to defend David. Villagrana and David Cuevas were members of the same Van Nuys street gang, Nison said.

David Cuevas has since recovered from his wounds and is serving a state prison sentence for an unrelated crime, Nison said.

Villagrana pleaded guilty in April, 1984, to voluntary manslaughter for the slaying of Sergio Cuevas and served less than three years in prison, the prosecutor said.

Jorge Cuevas counseled his mother and others to forgive the shootings of his older brothers--the one member of the family to urge that Cuevas’ actions be forgotten, the prosecutor said.

But on the evening of Oct. 16, 1987, while he was driving--drunk--in Van Nuys, he saw Villagrana’s car on Kester Street near Cedros Avenue, Nison said. Telling his passenger, “There goes the guy that killed my brother,” he rammed Villagrana’s car, the prosecutor said.

No one was injured, but Villagrana, whose car was damaged, went to borrow a gun and a short time later shot Jorge Cuevas to death in an alley near Cuevas’ home, Nison said.

Villagrana fled to Tijuana and later to San Diego, where he was arrested in June, 1988, Nison said.