A man convicted of opening fire into a Normal Heights apartment with a rifle nearly 25 years ago, killing a man, woman and a toddler inside, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Sergio Lopez Contreras, 46, was found guilty by a San Diego jury of the Sept. 4, 2000, killings of Michael Plummer, 27; Plummer's girlfriend, Adah Pearson, 18; and Plummer's nephew, Julio Rangel Jr., who was about 22 months old.
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Prosecutors allege Plummer was the intended target of the shooting because he didn't pay Contreras for about $30 worth of methamphetamine.
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Plummer was struck by a dozen bullets. Pearson was sleeping on the couch when she was shot and a bullet that pierced the wall behind Pearson entered a bedroom on the other side, where the toddler was sleeping.
The child's parents and a sibling were present when the shooting took place, but were not struck by the gunfire.
Contreras, who was 22 years old at the time, fired 16 shots into the Bancroft Street apartment, then fled the country, according to prosecutors. He was later arrested in Mexico and extradited to San Diego last year.
Jurors convicted him earlier this year of three counts of first-degree murder, allegations of discharging a firearm, and special circumstance allegations of committing multiple murders.
Special circumstance allegations can trigger the death penalty, but Deputy District Attorney Chris Lindberg said Contreras was incarcerated in Mexico for "the robbery and murder of a prominent doctor," and Mexican authorities required that local prosecutors not seek the death penalty as a condition of his extradition.
On Thursday, San Diego Superior Court Judge Melinda Lasater sentenced Contreras to three consecutive life without parole terms, plus 75 years to life for three firearm allegations.
At the sentencing hearing, Lindberg called the shooting "a senseless crime and devastating violence for those involved over a small amount of drugs, a small amount of money, and really just over (Contreras') wounded pride."
At trial, Contreras' defense attorney, Neil Besse, argued no forensic evidence tied his client to the shooting and that the prosecution's case largely relied on accusations from an associate of Contreras who was facing a lengthy prison sentence in an unrelated case and had reasons to lie.
That associate, Victor Calderon, was also present during the killings and was inadvertently shot in the arm by Contreras, Lindberg alleged. A blood trail leading away from the shooting scene was later positively identified as Calderon's blood.
While the case initially went cold, Calderon discussed the shooting with police in 2005 while incarcerated in Alabama for a DUI-related homicide, Lindberg said.
Besse said Calderon, who has since died while in prison, was facing up to 99 years in prison for the fatal DUI. Since the rumors swirling around the San Diego case were of a drug deal gone bad and Contreras was known as "the neighborhood drug dealer," he made a perfect fall guy, Besse argued.
