28 Years to Life for Teens Involved in 1994 Murder

Two teenagers were sentenced Friday to 28 years to life imprisonment in state prison for their involvement in a 1994 drive-by shooting that left a 15-year-old high school sophomore dead and two other youths injured.

Omar M. Fierro, 18, and Brandon Lee Flatt, 19, had pleaded guilty to first-degree murder charges in April. Fierro fired the gun and Flatt drove the car used in the crime, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Marc Rozenberg.

In all, eight teenagers--who were in two cars--have been prosecuted in connection with the shooting. Six have been sentenced and two await sentencing, Rozenberg said.

The shooting grew out of a rivalry between two “party crews,” loosely knit groups of young people who get together for weekend parties at homes or warehouses. Rozenberg said the party crews had evolved into gangs and were at war simply because the names of the groups closely resembled each other.

“This is a case of people not liking each other because they were in a rival group,” Rozenberg said. “They used a gun as means of expressing that with tragic results. One dead and two wounded.”

The victim, Cesar Torres, died of a gunshot wound to the chest. He was among a group of people leaving a birthday party on a residential street in Garden Grove when gunmen in two cars opened fire.

Torres’ mother and girlfriend sat in the back row of the courtroom Friday as the sentenced was imposed. The other side of the courtroom was filled with parents and friends of both convicted teenagers.

At the time of the shooting, Fierro was on the football team of Rancho Alamitos High School in Garden Grove; Flatt was a student at Ocean View High School in Huntington Beach. Both had hoped to be sent to the California Youth Authority instead of state prison, according to a sentencing report.