Woman Sentenced For Role In Hayward Murder Of Ex-Gang Member Who Testified Against Colleagues
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- An Alameda woman was sentenced on Monday to three years in state prison for her role in the revenge fatal shooting in unincorporated Hayward in 2017 of a former gang member who had testified against several gang colleagues.
Valeria Boden, 28, didn't fire any shots in the fatal shooting of Daniel Deltoro, 29, of Hayward, in the 200 block of Willow Avenue in the Cherryland neighborhood of Hayward at about 2:45 p.m. on July 19, 2017, while Deltoro was pushing his 3-month-old son in a stroller.
But Alameda County prosecutor Jimmie Wilson said Boden played a key role by driving reputed gang members Pablo Mendoza, 27, of Hayward, and Brandon Follings, 28, when they hunted down and killed Deltoro.
Wilson said Deltoro was "put on a bad news list and was red-lighted and targeted" because he had testified in 2015 in the trial of Joel Perry Jr., who Wilson said was a member of the Decoto gang.
Boden was charged with murder but prosecutors gave her a favorable plea deal allowing her to plead no contest to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter after she testified against Mendoza and Follings, who had been her boyfriend, in a trial in April and May.
Mendoza and Follings were convicted of first-degree murder, the special circumstance of murdering a witness and an enhancement that they committed the killing to benefit a criminal street gang.
Mendoza and Follings were both sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole but Boden only got the three-year term when Alameda County Superior Court Judge Kevin Murphy sentenced her on Monday.
Boden was scheduled to stand trial with Mendoza and Follings but Wilson said she decided to testify for the prosecution after Follings told her in open court during pretrial hearings in April that he would harm her daughter if she "snitched" on him.
In her testimony on May 1, Boden said she was driving Mendoza and Follings on July 19, 2017, when they spotted Deltoro.
Boden said Mendoza said he recognized Deltoro "as somebody who used to be in his 'hood and that he had snitched."
Perry was convicted of first-degree murder and attempted murder for a shooting at a Union City park in 2008 that left a 28-year-old man dead and another man seriously injured. Three other reputed gang members pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in that case.
Wilson said the 2008 case "had gone cold," but when Deltoro provided crucial information to Union City police they were able to develop information that helped them put together their case against Perry and three associates.
Wilson alleged that Mendoza, who he said also belongs to the Decoto gang, never forgave Deltoro for coming forward and recruited Follings, who he said is a member of the Ice City gang in Oakland, to help him kill Deltoro.
After Boden was sentenced, Deltoro's widow said, "My husband finally got justice" now that all three defendants in the case have been sentenced.
Deltoro's widow said, "I'm still grieving" and their two children, including the boy who was with Deltoro when he was killed, will have to grow up without their father.
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