By Ricardo Tovar
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SALINAS, California (KSBW) — Two Salinas gang members were found guilty of a 2023 murder that also left a mother paralyzed, announced Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni.
After a three-week trial both Abel Perez, 26, of Salinas, and Ivan Barriga, 21, were found guilty.
They were found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, murder, attempted murder, assault with a semi-automatic firearm, assault with a machine gun, shooting at an occupied dwelling and several firearm possession offenses, per Pacioni.
The jury also returned true findings on two special circumstances that the co-defendants murdered through lying in wait and furtherance of a criminal street gang.
On the morning of May 20, 2023, Christian Jimenez, 21, and his 20-year-old friend were working on Jimenez’s new car in the parking lot of and apartment complex on Garner Avenue.
At 9:55 a.m. both defendants drove past Jimenez and John Doe and planned to shoot them, even though neither had any gang ties. The pair drove past the apartment at least two more times and parked around the corner.
Perez and Barriaga walked on foot to the apartment complex parking lot where Jimenez and Doe were now seated in Jimenez’s car.
Perez and Barriaga fired 33 rounds, 25 were fired by a machine gun used by Perez, per Pacioni.
Jimenez was killed by the gunfire, Doe was struck, and several bullets hit occupied apartments. One bullet hit and paralyzed a nearby woman, 40-year-old Lucia Godinez, making breakfast for her children, said Pacioni.
“After the shooting, Perez and Barriga ran to a nearby apartment complex where a nearby resident observed saw Perez place a firearm in an electric box and Barriga discard a hat in a garbage can. Officers collected these items and subsequent testing on this hat revealed Barriga’s DNA,” said Pacioni.
Both defendants face a mandatory life-without-parole at their Feb. 20, 2025 sentencing.
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