Why this matters
The case attracted notice from juvenile justice advocates who said the district attorney's decision to transfer a case against two 15-year-olds to federal court was a blatant gambit to circumvent state law prohibiting prosecution in adult courts of youths under 16.
Two youths pleaded guilty Thursday to murder and attempted murder in connection with two late-night shootings in Chula Vista in 2024 in a case that began in San Diego Superior Court but in an unprecedented turn was sent to federal courts, where potential punishments are more severe.
Andrew Nunez and Johncarlo Quintero both admitted in plea agreements and at a court hearing Thursday that they tried to kill an unidentified man in the evening and early morning hours of March 26 and March 27, 2024, wounding him and another man in the process.
The shooting spree began in the parking lot of a Chili’s restaurant in a strip mall at East H Street and Paseo del Rey. As the victim left with his family Nunez, Quintero and an adult, Ricardo Sanchez, pulled up behind them.
The youths got out and opened fire, hitting the victim in the leg. However, according to the plea agreement, the guns jammed. Nunez tried to run the victim down, but he escaped.
When the first attempt failed, they went to the man’s house a short distance away. There, the two opened fire again, wounding another man, according to the plea agreement.
That second victim, who was shot in the hand, arm and face and survived, returned fire, killing Sanchez. The two youths fled but were later arrested.
Though they did not shoot Sanchez, Nunez and Quintero pleaded guilty under the “provocative act” legal doctrine. That says an individual who commits an act against another person, and provokes a response from that victim resulting in the death of a third person, can be held liable for that death.
Prosecutors said the two were members of the Los Angeles-area street gang Westside Wilmas. They were each supposed to be paid $50,000 for the hit, which authorities said was conducted on the orders of the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico.
The pair pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder in aid of racketeering, and murder in the aid of racketeering. Prosecutors said they committed the shooting to enhance their position in the gang.
The first charge carries a sentence of 10 years in prison. The second potentially calls for the death penalty or life in prison.
But because the two were 15 years old at the time they are ineligible for the death penalty or for a full life in prison sentence, according to the plea agreement.
Both also admitted they knew that because they were under 16 at the time, they could not be prosecuted as adults under California law.
Quintero’s plea agreement said that after their arrest the two talked about not being able to “catch a 707.” That is the code section under state juvenile law that authorizes the hearing that transfers a youth from juvenile court to adult court status.
That was a key reason why Nunez, now 16, and Quintero, 17, ended up in federal court.
While at one time California could try youths as young as 14 as adults, in 2018 the Legislature passed a law prohibiting such prosecutions of anyone charged with a crime who was under 16.
After their arrest the two were initially charged in state court as juvenile. But in July 2024, San Diego District Attorney Summer Stephan dropped those charges and instead sent the case to federal authorities.
At the time she cited an increase in juvenile crimes locally. And she said there was “a growing public safety concern that adult criminals are enticing minors to commit violent crimes with assurances that they will escape accountability due to California’s state juvenile laws. The referral for federal prosecution in this case aims to stop the recruitment of minors to execute violent crimes.”
Federal law has no prohibition against treating youths under 16 as adults.
Her decision alarmed juvenile justice reform advocates. They said Stephan was thwarting the expressed will of the Legislature and undermining years of work dismantling the once harsh juvenile justice regiment in state courts in favor of what is now a less punitive system focused more on rehabilitation.
They also said it set a troubling example of working around the law that other prosecutors around the state could copy.
At the hearing the two youths sat quietly next to their lawyers and calmly answered a series of questions from U.S. District Court Judge Todd Robinson. The two are scheduled to be sentenced March 20.
Type of Content
News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
