Escondido

A 37-year-old mother who admitted aiding her fugitive son flee to Mexico to escape arrest has been sentenced to 270 days in jail.

Bertha Naranjo of Escondido was placed on three-years probation and given credit for 85 days previously spent in jail, including time off for good behavior.

She is the mother of Luis Montoya, 18, who is charged in the May 27 killing of Manuel Audelo, 18, an Orange Glen High School student, in Escondido.

Naranjo pleaded guilty to being an accessory in her son’s flight the same night, but maintained she only knew her son had been in a fight.

“She wasn’t aware there was a homicide,” said her attorney, Victor Eriksen.

Eriksen urged San Diego Superior Court Judge Frederic L. Link on Wednesday to sentence her to time served since her July 3 arrest.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Allen Williams told Link that Naranjo visited her son four to five times later in Mexico after arranging for his escape.

Link noted that “she did continue to assist her son in avoiding arrest and contact with police.”

Under terms of probation, the judge ordered that “she’s not to travel to Mexico for any reason whatsoever” for the next three years.

Naranjo pleaded guilty Aug. 2 and wrote on a court document that she “harbored my son, Luis Montoya, knowing that he had committed a felony.”

She could have received a three year prison term and a $10,000 fine.

In the May 27 shootings, two others were wounded after a fight at the Qwik Korner market at Fig Street and Lincoln Avenue.