The murder convictions of two men sentenced to life without parole for a 2020 Point Loma shooting have been overturned by a state appellate court panel, which ruled jurors should not have been allowed to hear gang-related evidence during the trial.
Angel Garcia and Armando Alvarado were found guilty in the Nov. 25, 2020, shooting death of 18-year-old Eduardo Salguero, in what prosecutors said was a robbery gone wrong.
According to a ruling issued Thursday from the Fourth District Court of Appeal, Salguero sought to purchase a ghost gun and drove to meet with the supposed sellers in a parking lot behind the Vons supermarket in a shopping center on Midway Drive.
Prosecutors said in the weeks following the killing that Salguero had arranged to make the purchase via Snapchat.
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Salguero and his friend arrived in a car, at which point the defendants allegedly entered the vehicle and demanded money from the victims at gunpoint. Salguero was shot in the back while behind the wheel of the car, which ended up crashing into a retaining wall. Salguero's friend ran from the scene.
Salguero, who was found behind the wheel of the crashed car, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Cell phone evidence related to the gun sale, DNA evidence on items found in Salguero's car, and statements made during an undercover jail operation tied the defendants to the killing, according to the appellate court ruling.
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Garcia and Alvarado were convicted of murder, attempted murder and a special-circumstance allegation of committing the murder in the commission of a robbery, among other crimes. It was uncertain whether Thursday's ruling will result in a retrial.
The appellate panel's ruling states the jury heard evidence that the defendants were gang members, but the appellate justices ruled that evidence was not required to prove their involvement in the shooting and robbery.
Instead, they ruled the inclusion of the gang evidence was prejudicial to the defendants and harmed the credibility of their claims that Salguero's friend pulled out a realistic-looking BB gun during the hold-up.
The appellate panel wrote the gang evidence "was inflammatory and prejudicial because it informed jurors that appellants belonged to a gang whose primary purpose was to commit violent crimes, gang members frequently commit crimes together and killing someone in association with another gang member increases that person's status within the gang."
