Man Sentenced To Life For Gang-Related Double Murder
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) -- A 22-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for opening fire on a rival gang's car, killing a couple and wounding two others.
Fabian Guerrero and Diane Guerra were killed in the May 20, 2012 shooting in south Fort Worth along Interstate-35.
Prosecutors waived the death penalty for Joe "Lil Joe" Sessums, who confessed to being the shooter.
The incident began at a Hooters restaurant in south Fort Worth, where Guerrero and Guerra met with a number of friends. Guerrero and others in the group were believed to be members of a Fort Worth gang.
Unbeknownst to them, a member of a rival gang was working at the restaurant that evening and called several members of his crew to the scene. Three members of the gang arrived at the scene, where they waited for Guerrero and his group to leave.
Shortly after 9 p.m., Guerrero, Guerra and three others left the restaurant heading east on Interstate-20 in a white Toyota Camry.
The rival gang members, including Sessums, followed the vehicle in a Tahoe onto I-35. When the vehicle exited the freeway, the Tahoe pulled up next to the Camry, firing at least 14 shots into the vehicle.
The car crashed into a retaining wall alongside the freeway and came to rest in a church parking lot.
Guerrero -- who was driving -- and Guerra -- the passenger -- were pronounced dead at the scene. Two other passengers in the backseat were wounded. A fifth occupant was not injured.
"Fabian and Diane were much loved by their family and friends, and their death left a huge hole in their heart," said Prosecutor Tamla Ray. "Hopefully, this verdict will allow their loved ones to feel some amount of peace."
Guerrero confessed to the killings a month after the shooting, saying he killed both victims with a 9mm handgun, which he says he threw into the Trinity River.
The two other accomplices, Gabriel "Lil Shadow" Cerda and Jose "Stretch" De La Rosa, remain in jail awaiting capital murder trials.
(©2013 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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