JLWOP Inmate Rattanak Kak
On January 9, 2006 Rak was sentenced to life without possibility of parole for the murder of a man walking with his girlfriend in American Legion Park in October10, 2003
His sentence also included more than 200 years to life in prison for other crimes, and was
one of the most severe ever handed to a San Joaquin County gang member according to prosecutors.
Kak’s co-defendant Mao Hin was sentenced to death for his part in the Oct. 10, 2003, murder of Alfonso Martinez, age 20 and the shooting of Debra Pizano, then 16. Kak and Hin are members of the Southeast Asian Tiny Rascals gang. Evidence at trial showed Kak fired the shots when Hin ordered Kak to commit the robbery and the shooting
A month before the killing of Martinez and the attempted murder of Pizano, Kak was involved in a drive-by shooting in which Bounthavy Onethavong died after being shot twice in the head and Judy Onesavanh and Sophal Ouch were shot and seriously injured. Although the three victims were not gang members themselves, Judy was driving her father’s car. Judy’s brother George frequently drove that vehicle and he was a member of the Asian Boys, a rival gang. A blue Honda pulled up beside the victims’ car, and a barrage of gunfire rang out, hitting all three occupants.
Kak and Hin continued their two month reign of terror where their gang ran wild shooting up the streets of Stockton, ending on November 8, 2003 on Bedlow Drive with Kak and Hin spraying five people with gunfire from their van.
JLWOP Inmates Jimmy Benson and David Lewis
Benson and Lewis, both members of the Crips gang, were convicted of the September 25, 2004 murder of Eric Castillo and three counts of attempted murder of three other victims. Benson, Lewis, and two adult Crips gang members were staking out their claim to a new neighborhood when the shootings occurred. Lewis fired the fatal shot that killed Eric Castillo, and Benson fired his gun during the melee.
Fifteen-year-old Eric Castillo was killed at a friend’s home where he was attending a chaperoned birthday party. Chaperones, fearing trouble, tried to end the party when they saw gang members among the crowd of teenagers. Shots then rang out, killing Eric Castillo, and wounding three others.
Jimmie Benson, Jessie Zamora, Andrew Thompson, and David Lewis were each charged with murder and the special circumstances of having gang affiliations and using a firearm with the intent to cause great bodily injury. Each was also charged with three counts of attempted murder of the three victims injured by gunfire.
On February 26, 2007 David Lewis was sentenced to life without possibility of parole for the murder of Eric Castillo and 142 years and four months for the other charges and enhancements.
On March 19, 2007 Jimmy Lee Benson was ordered to serve 142 years and four months to life in prison, plus life without the possibility of parole for his role in the gunfire that resulted in the death of Castillo and the wounding of three others. Although Benson did not fire the shots that killed Eric Castillo and injured three others he received the life sentence under a law that forbids encouraging other gang members.
JLWOP Inmate Jose Rodriguez Cardenas
Jose Rodriguez Cardenas, was convicted of the murder of a nineteen-year-old Stockton man, Francisco Montejo Diaz. Diaz was gunned down around 4:30 p.m. Dec. 9 , 2007 and died a few hours later. The murder occurred 3 months before Cardenas was eighteen. Cardenas’ co-defendant was 18-year-old Ramon Enrique Mendez. Cardenas was sentenced to life without possibility of parole.for the murder which was found to have been committed in furtherance of gang activity.
JLWOP Inmate Robert Christopher Goldsberry
Robert Christopher Goldsberry was convicted of first degree murder of Fernando Rocha Soto. The jury found that the murder was committed while defendant was an active participant in a criminal street gang and that defendant committed the murder to further the activities of a criminal street gang. The jury further found that defendant personally used a firearm and personally and intentionally discharged a firearm and inflicted great bodily injury or death.
Twenty-year-old Rocky Munoz Zuniga, age 20, and Fernando Rocha Soto, age 23 were Mexican farm workers who worked in the Stockton area. On August 31, 2002, as Zuniga and Soto were walking in Stockton, they were confronted by Goldsberry, then 17, and two other males, all on bicycles. Randy Hernandez and Raul Avina, age 18 were with Goldsberry. Goldsberry and Hernandez were members of East Side Stocktone (ESS), a Stockton gang under the Norteno gang umbrella.
Goldsberry asked Munoz and Soto if they were Surenos, and they replied that they were “fellow countrymen, Mexicans” and that there were “‘no problemos'”; Munoz saw Goldsberry pulling a gun out of his pants while straddling his bicycle. The trio yelled, “‘Scrapos,” which is a derogatory term for the rival Sureno gang and “Norteno.” Munoz and Soto started to run away when Goldsberry then shot Soto in the back of the head, killing him.
A witness in the neighborhood saw the shooting and saw Goldsberry put a sawed off shotgun in the waistband of his black shorts and cover it with his white T-shirt. This witness recognized Goldsberry and co-defendant Randy Hernandez from a previous confrontation with them. Raul Avina testified at trial under a grant of immunity.
JLWOP Inmate Egnacio Joshua
Stockton teen Egnacio Joshua fatally shot shooting Alex Agsalda and David Tourville in Stockton on June 28. During the trial, both the prosecution and defense agreed that Joshua shot and killed the two men but the defense attorney argued that Joshua, who was being tried as an adult for the slayings committed when he was17 at the time of the slayings had the mental abilities of a child.
The prosecutor argued that the murders occurred during a robbery when Agsalda, 35 and Tourville, 38, went to north Stockton to buy drugs. Tourville handed the money for the drugs to Joshua and Joshua grabbed a gun and fired. Tourville was wounded in the face, arm and back, and Agsalda was wounded in the back and side.
Joshua was sentenced to two terms of life without possibility on August 10, 1998.
