Man convicted of murdering 3 people, injuring 2 in Gardena and Lynwood shootings
A jury found a man guilty of murdering three people and injuring two others in a series of shootings in Gardena and Lynwood, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Selvin Fabian Salazar was convicted of three counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder in connection with the 2018 shootings, in which he shot and wounded his pregnant ex-girlfriend as one of the five victims, authorities said. He has also been convicted of felony charges of intimidation of a witness, carjacking and possession of a firearm by a felon along with special allegations of multiple murders and a sentencing enhancement of use of force, according to the LA County District Attorney's Office.
The guilty verdict was delivered Thursday and Salazar is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 23 in the Torrance Courthouse. Prosecutors said he is expected to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
On July 31, 2018, Salazar opened fire at a mobile home park in Gardena, shooting and killing 28-year-old Dolores Sanchez as she sat in the driver's seat of a vehicle. He also shot and wounded his pregnant ex-girlfriend and Saith Pedraza, a passenger in the vehicle. Pedraza died from his wounds two years later.
At the time, prosecutors described Sanchez as a friend of Salazar's ex-girlfriend. Sanchez was pronounced dead at the scene. Prosecutors said Salazar then forced a married couple to drive him away from the scene.
They drove him to Lynwood, and there, Salazar shot and killed the husband who had been the driver — Francisco Montes, 29, of Gardena. Authorities said he dragged Montes out of the SUV and onto the Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on-ramp to the southbound 710 Freeway and also tried to shoot Montes' wife.
But the gun apparently jammed, LA County Sheriff's Lt. John Corina said at the time.
"She's very lucky to be alive," he said.
During the trial this month, prosecutor Kendra Carman told the jury Salazar was best friends with Montes and killed him, and tried to kill his spouse, because he thought the couple was going to turn him in to police, according to the Daily Breeze. Carman told jurors that Salazar started shooting the victims because he thought his girlfriend had set him up to be killed by rival gang members.
Carman said Salazar shot his ex-girlfriend in the neck and Pedraza was left paralyzed before he died two years later, the Breeze reported. His ex-girlfriend had been staying with Sanchez and someone else because Salazar had allegedly been abusive, the prosecutor said.
Salazar was found and arrested in Inglewood a day after the shootings.
