Man Sentenced in Random but Fatal Shooting

A Saticoy man was sentenced Friday to serve 18 years to life in prison for his role in the slaying last October of a Cabrillo Village father of four.

Rudolfo Leo Martinez, 21, who had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, will be required to serve at least 12 years in prison before he becomes eligible for parole, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Holmes.

Martinez was held responsible for the killing of Jose Guadalupe Gutierrez, 37, even though prosecutors conceded he did not fire the deadly blast.

Martinez and two teen-agers were shooting randomly at buildings in Cabrillo Village on Oct. 1, when one of the bullets fired by one of the 17-year-old youths struck Gutierrez in the heart, authorities said.

Gutierrez had just finished leading an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and was standing outside a building chatting with a friend when he was hit, prosecutors said.

Police said Gutierrez apparently did not know the gunmen and was an innocent victim of gang violence. The three shooters were spraying Cabrillo Village with bullets because members of a rival gang lived there, authorities said.

Martinez’s sentence, ordered by Municipal Judge Bruce A. Clark, is standard for homicide defendants, Holmes said. And by law, Gutierrez is legally guilty of murder even though the bullets he fired did not cause the fatal injury, Holmes said.

“If you are a principal in any homicide, you share the consequences equally with the actual shooter,” he said.

After a six-month investigation, Ventura police earlier this month arrested two juveniles in connection with the shooting. The two teen-agers, whose names were not released because of their age, have pleaded not guilty to the shooting.

Prosecutors will attempt to have the youths tried as adults in hearings scheduled for next month, Holmes said. Each is charged with murder and shooting at an occupied dwelling.

Investigators were able to piece together what happened by collecting shell casings at the scene.

They found six shell casings from a .22-caliber handgun, one from a shotgun and two or three from Martinez’s weapon, indicating multiple gunmen in the slaying, prosecutors said.

Police arrested Martinez Nov. 11 after he was identified as a possible suspect in an unrelated gang shooting, authorities said. Shotgun casings from that shooting matched those taken from the scene of the Gutierrez slaying, prosecutors said.

When Martinez was arrested at his Saticoy home, police found a shotgun, which matched casings from both shootings, tucked underneath the defendant’s bed, prosecutors said.