Drive-By Shooter Gets 140 Years to Life
A former college student was sentenced Friday to over 100 years in prison for two separate drive-by shootings in which one person was killed and a police officer was injured.
Deputy Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steven J. Ipsen said Juan Corral, 20, was attending CSUN on scholarship at the same time he was an active gang member.
He said Corral was among a group of Vineland Boys gang members who, angry over the slaying of one of their members, went to San Fernando on March 17, 1998, to shoot rival gang members. They shot at four boys who had shaved heads and were dressed in baggy clothes, none of whom, Ipsen said, were gang members.
Saul Santiago, who was to graduate from San Fernando High School the next day and had been accepted by UCLA, was killed by rifle fire to his back and head.
“What this case shows is that it’s not just the bad kids that are victims,” Ipsen said. “We’re talking college students now--on both sides of it.”
An off-duty San Fernando police officer who heard the shots and gave chase was also shot by Corral, Ipsen said, but the officer’s injuries were not life-threatening.
Corral was also convicted in July of an earlier drive-by in which another teenager was shot six times, but survived.
Superior Court Judge Meredith C. Taylor sentenced Corral to 140 years to life in prison on Friday for the two shootings.
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