Provider of Gun in Murder Gets Probation

A Chula Vista man was sentenced Wednesday to five years of probation for furnishing a stolen handgun that was used in a fatal drive-by shooting.

Carlos Ernesto Gutierrez, 20, was also ordered to serve one year in County Jail and to pay $5,000 restitution as a result of his June 4 conviction of involuntary manslaughter. However, he will probably be released in early 1993.

Gutierrez and three others were convicted of various charges relating to the Dec. 2 shooting of Alfredo Rodriguez, a 41-year-old shipyard foreman who was gunned down outside his Nestor mobile home while he was saying goodby to the last guest attending his 7-year-old daughter’s birthday party.

The four young men had decided to shoot at a vehicle following a minor traffic altercation, but one of the men, 19-year-old Anthony William Trevino, also opened fire on Rodriguez, who was standing on the curb around the corner from the original target.

Trevino was convicted of first-degree murder for being the gunman and is serving a prison term of 30 years to life.

Superior Court Judge Richard M. Murphy gave Gutierrez the light sentence--he could have gotten eight years in state prison--after a three-month evaluation period at the state correctional facility at Chino. A psychiatrist and a counselor testified favorably about Gutierrez during Wednesday’s sentencing hearing.

While Murphy ruled that Gutierrez could not be granted an early release from jail for reasons such as overcrowding, Gutierrez already has custody credits totaling about seven months, and he is expected to be released around the beginning of 1993.

The two other men in the case, Robert Windel Connelly, 21, and Joseph Kinsey, 19, are scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday and Friday, respectively.