29-to-Life Term Given for Killing During July 4 Melee

A Riverside man was sentenced Monday to 29 years to life in state prison for fatally shooting a stranger during a Fourth of July melee in Huntington Beach last year.

Esteban Quiroz Jr., 23, was found guilty in April of firing point-blank into the chest of Christopher Albert, a 21-year-old former athlete at Lakewood High School who was a fringe member of the notorious Spur Posse there.

Roy Casey Becerra, 23, had already been given a two-year term for his role as accessory.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard W. Luesebrink rejected Quiroz’s bid for a new trial on grounds of inadequate defense. Quiroz, a carpenter, received a 25-year term for first-degree murder, plus four years for using a firearm.

Quiroz shot Albert in an 11 p.m. confrontation at 10th Street and Pacific Coash Highway during a rowdy Independence Day celebration. Quiroz shouted epithets as he charged Albert and opened fire.

Defense lawyers argued that the shooting was in self-defense. They said Quiroz believed Albert was menacing his friends by punching out a car window just minutes after he was pulled from a separate fist fight.

The jury twice declared itself deadlocked before returning the guilty verdicts for Quiroz and Becerra, who were tried together.

Albert’s mother, Joan, described Quiroz as a “sociopath” who did not know right from wrong.

“My life has become every parent’s worst nightmare,” she wrote in a letter quoted in a probation report prepared for Monday’s sentencing.

Quiroz’s relatives accused the judge and jury of racism in convicting him of murder and imposing the stiff sentence though Quiroz had no previous criminal record.

“He’s a good kid, but they don’t look at that,” said his sister Alexandra Quiroz, 24.

But Deputy District Atty. Dan McNerney rejected bias charges, saying race was not a factor in the trial.