Jury Convicts Three in Drive-By Slaying : Courts: Victim was an innocent bystander killed while giving a party for his 7-year-old daughter.

Three South Bay men were convicted of several felony crimes Thursday for participating in a drive-by shooting that led to the killing of an innocent man who was saying goodby to a guest at his daughter’s 7th birthday party.

Anthony William Trevino, an 18-year-old Imperial Beach man, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Alfredo Rodriguez. Trevino shot the 41-year-old shipyard foreman in the heart outside his Nestor mobile home Dec. 2.

Robert Windel Connelly, a 21-year-old Imperial Beach resident, and Carlos Ernesto Gutierrez, a 19-year-old Chula Vista man, were both convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

Although the jury determined that Trevino was the gunman, the panel was able to convict the other two men in the killing because it found the group had conspired to conduct a drive-by shooting.

The events leading to Rodriguez’s death began several hours before the shooting when a red Chevrolet Blazer inadvertently cut off a car containing Trevino, Connelly and Joseph Kinsey, a 19-year-old Imperial Beach man. After following the Blazer to a mobile home park, the young men met at the San Ysidro Outlet Center, where they met Gutierrez, who produced a 9-millimeter handgun.

The four men went back to the mobile home park. Testimony showed that Trevino ignored shouts of ‘Don’t shoot’ from his companions and fired into the unoccupied Blazer. He then also shot Rodriguez, who was around the corner.

Rodriguez died in front of his house, leaving behind two children and a wife who was eight months pregnant.

All three men were convicted of conspiracy to shoot at an unoccupied vehicle and then actually committing the shooting. Superior Court Judge Richard M. Murphy ordered the trio to be held without bail until the are sentenced.

Trevino faces a minimum of 30 years to life in state prison when he is sentenced on July 21.

Connelly, who was married several days ago, is expected to receive a 6 1/2-year sentence, while Gutierrez could be sentenced to more than 8 years because he furnished the weapon, said Deputy Dist. Atty. David Greenberg.

Kinsey is scheduled to be sentenced on July 15 for his felony guilty plea to shooting at an unoccupied vehicle. He testified against his three friends at the trial.