LOS ANGELES — Two men and a woman were convicted Wednesday of murder and other charges stemming from a shooting in South Los Angeles in which two 15-year-old boys were killed and two other teens were wounded on Mother’s Day in 2018.
The downtown Los Angeles jury deliberated just over two hours before finding Cristian Ivan Macias and Edwin Federico Loza, both 24, and Nancy De La Rocha, 31, guilty of two counts each of first-degree murder for the May 13, 2018, shootings of La’marrion Upchurch of Long Beach and Monyae Jackson of Los Angeles in the 300 block of West Manchester Avenue near the 110 Freeway, along with one count each of conspiracy to commit murder and two counts each of attempted murder for the shootings of two other 15-year-old boys who were injured.
Jurors also found true the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, along with an allegation that Macias personally and intentionally discharged a firearm.
The three are facing life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In his closing argument, Deputy District Attorney Brian Chang called the slayings the “result of a calculated plan to kill by the defendants,” alleging that Macias and Loza were gang members and that De La Rocha served as the driver and that a Los Angeles police officer believed she was a gang associate.
The prosecutor told jurors that De La Rocha was initially confronted by a man who pointed a gun at her at a taco stand to get some food. Chang said Loza left to arm himself with a weapon, and that Macias had a separate confrontation with the four teenage boys in which a gun that wound up being a pellet gun was pointed at him by Jackson before Macias ran away and subsequently got into De La Rocha’s black SUV.
Of the defendants, Chang said, “It’s a planned execution … They hunted for them.”
“They utilized a car to get the jump on them … to surprise the victims,” the prosecutor said, telling jurors that the four teenagers were shot while…
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