David Guadalupe: California man gets life in prison for fatally shooting innocent young dad as he couldn't find rival gang member to kill

VENTURA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: A young father was moving his car in front of his house to avoid getting a parking ticket when a California gang member approached him at random, asked him what gang he belonged to, and shot him dead.

The California gang member will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko released a news release stating that David Guadalupe Calderon, 31, was found guilty of first-degree murder of 19-year-old Edwin Herrera and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 27 years to life.

Murder took place in Oxnard on February 29, 2012

In the case, Calderon was found guilty last month. “Words can’t express how my family and I are feeling at the moment!” the victim's sister wrote on Facebook.

The post further read, “These past 2 weeks of details and testimony have been horrible seen this monsters face has been an emotional roller coaster, sleeping wounds have resurfaced but today we’re happy to know you will never ever be free.”

The lead prosecutor, Senior Deputy District Attorney John Barrick, acknowledged in the press release that the Oxnard Police Department had worked diligently to solve the case, which dates back more than a dozen years.

“The evidence presented to the jury overwhelmingly proved that the defendant not only committed this horrendous crime but did so without remorse,” he said.

He went on to say, “Hopefully, the defendant’s conviction and sentence will allow Edwin’s family to begin the healing process they so rightfully deserve.”

The murder took place in Oxnard, about 60 miles west of Los Angeles' downtown, on February 29, 2012.

Prosecutors claimed that on that particular day, Calderon and fellow gang member Carlos Hernandez bought a special kind of shotgun ammunition from a nearby gun store with the intention of "looking to restore his credibility with his gang."

Officials said that night that the two went after their rivals. “They were looking for Lemonwood gang members to kill, and when they didn’t find one, they decided to settle on any male in the area. Unfortunately for the victim, they chose him,” Barrick said, the Ventura County Star reported.

They saw Herrera, who Barrick claimed was a law-abiding citizen with no outstanding tickets, moving his vehicle to evade a parking ticket in front of his house.

David Calderon found selling weapon to another gang member

Prosecutors said that Calderon approached the victim while keeping Hernandez on 'lookout', got out of his car, took a sawed-off shotgun, and demanded to know which gang Herrera belonged to.

Calderon shot Herrera in the neck at close range even after Herrera told him he wasn't a member of a gang before he and Hernandez ran away. After hearing the gunshot, Herrera's family discovered him hunched over in his vehicle. It happened in a hospital.

Twenty-five minutes after the murder, Calderon was seen on surveillance footage calmly entering a pizza shop and ordering a pie. He sold the murder weapon to another gang member a few days later.

On March 30, 2012, Oxnard police were executing a search warrant at a home when they discovered that gun.

On August 28, 2015, over three years after Herrera's death, Calderon—who was at the time serving a five-year sentence in state prison for a robbery conviction—was accused of her murder.

Citing court documents, the local CW Television Network KTLA claimed that he was captured on tape “bragging about the killing to another inmate.” His accomplice, Hernandez, entered a guilty plea to a charge of voluntary manslaughter and is scheduled to be sentenced on June 18, according to court records available online.