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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A gang member convicted in a so-called ``Bonnie and Clyde'' crime spree that included the fatal shooting of a motorist who was waiting with his family at a traffic light was re-sentenced today to nearly 262 years to life in state prison.
Alejandro Lazo and co-defendant Reyna Gomez were convicted of first- degree murder for the April 29, 2017, slaying of Jose Sahagun, 44, of Norwalk, a married father of two who was shot multiple times at Santa Gertrudes Avenue and Alicante Road in La Mirada.
Authorities said the one-day crime spree also included a carjacking in Pico Rivera, the shooting and wounding of a man in an alley in Whittier and shots being fired at two vehicles, leaving one person injured. Along with the murder charge, Lazo was convicted of one count of carjacking and 12 counts of attempted murder.
In a November 2021 ruling, a three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal cited ``insufficient'' evidence in reversing Lazo's conviction on three of the attempted murder counts involving front-seat passengers in vehicles in which the drivers, including Sahagun, were specifically targeted. The appellate court justices also overturned a gang enhancement against Lazo on the carjacking count.
In March 2020, a state appeals court panel also had upheld Gomez's conviction on the bulk of the counts while citing a jury instruction error in ordering her conviction on four attempted murder charges to be reversed. She is also serving a potential life prison term.
The panel noted in the 2020 ruling that Gomez and Lazo drove around in a green Nissan Pathfinder SUV that was taken at gunpoint and took ``turns shooting at people on the street and in other vehicles,'' and that Gomez's reference to herself and Lazo as ``Bonnie and Clyde'' ``further supported a finding that she and Lazo committed the various crimes together as a team, i.e. she aided and abetted Lazo's crimes and vice versa.''
Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Chung told jurors in Lazo's trial that he was ``not the one who pulls the trigger'' in Sahagun's shooting, but urged jurors to ``look at the totality of what happened'' that day in asking the panel to convict Lazo of first-degree murder.
Gomez and Lazo were arrested by Whittier police the night of the crime spree after being found wounded near a Santa Fe Springs motel. It was unclear who shot Lazo and Gomez, who had both been released from prison less than six months earlier.
Lazo -- who was on parole -- had been convicted of extortion and assault, and Gomez had been convicted of auto theft and receiving stolen property.
The appellate court panel noted in Lazo's case that .22-caliber ammunition fell from a pocket of Lazo's pants to the ground as he was being loaded on to a gurney, and that gunshot residue was found on Lazo and Gomez.
Ballistics evidence connected the .22-caliber gun found next to Lazo with cartridge cases found in the Pathfinder that had been taken at gunpoint and the bullet recovered from Sahagun's body, and DNA recovered from a beer can in the vehicle was consistent with DNA from the two defendants, according to the ruling in Lazo's case.