Teenager Gets 25 Years to Life in 2 Shootings

A former Buena High School student was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison Monday for killing one man and critically injuring another at a 1996 birthday party in Ventura.

Juan Flores, 18, was arrested after pulling a gun at the party and shooting two people. Authorities say he got in an argument with a party-goer and brandished a handgun after being asked to leave.

During a struggle for the weapon, several shots were fired and two men were hit, both in the chest.

Luis Carlos Romero, a 23-year-old painter and Oxnard College student, was killed. Herman Charles Fields, a 45-year-old Ventura resident, was critically injured.

Flores, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon last month for shooting the two men.

During a sentencing hearing Monday, Fields and two relatives of Romero made statements about how the shootings affected them to the judge, who sentenced Flores to 15 years to life in prison for the murder charge.

Ten years were added to the sentence for the assault charge and because the defendant used a handgun in the crime, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Bamieh said.