2 Teens Receive Long Terms in Fatal Shooting

Two teenage gang members were sentenced to long prison terms Friday for their role in the random slaying of a single father of four on a Cabrillo Village street.

Merle W. Lopez, 17, of Santa Paula was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison for firing the fatal shot that killed Jose Guadalupe Gutierrez, 37, on Oct. 1, 1994.

His cousin, Richard Jay Villarreal, also 17, of Ventura received a sentence of 18 years to life in prison. Lopez received a slightly longer sentence because his bullet killed Gutierrez.

“There should be greater culpability for this defendant because of the results of his actions,” acting Superior Court Judge Kenneth Ziebarth said of Lopez. Superior Court Judge Allan L. Steele sentenced Villarreal earlier Friday in another courtroom.

A judge had ruled last year that both teens should stand trial as adults, but both will serve their sentences in the California Youth Authority until they turn 25.

Rudolfo Leo Martinez, 21, who was also involved in the killing, was sentenced last year to 18 years to life in prison. All three pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the random slaying of Gutierrez, who had just finished leading an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

Investigators said the three were shooting at buildings in the Ventura neighborhood of Cabrillo Village when one of the bullets struck Gutierrez in the heart. He was standing outside a car talking to a friend.

Though the fatal bullet was fired from Lopez’s .22-caliber rifle, the two other shooters were also guilty of murder because all were involved in the shooting, prosecutors said. Investigators said the three were spraying the neighborhood with bullets because rival gang members lived there.

Gutierrez’s wife had died of cancer three years before the shooting, and the Gutierrez children, ages 6 to 20, were parceled out to different family members, his sister said.

“It has broken up the family,” Maria Sepulveda said through an interpreter. She and her father attended the sentencing hearings Friday. Sepulveda said Gutierrez’s 6-year-old daughter has nightmares and talks of dying “so she can be with her father in heaven.”

The Gutierrez family has attended nearly every court hearing held for the three gunmen since their arrests shortly after the shooting. Family members sat sobbing in both sentence hearings and talked of their hatred for Gutierrez’s killers outside the courtroom.

“I wish they could serve their sentences in prison” rather than at the youth facility, said Elma Gutierrez, Jose Gutierrez’s niece. “Because what they did was a very adult thing to do.”

Martinez was arrested at his Saticoy home a month after the shooting when he was implicated in another gang-related shooting. Investigators found a shotgun used in the Gutierrez shooting under Martinez’s bed. After a six-month investigation, Ventura police arrested the two teens.