Sentinel staff report–
Two gang members have been convicted of first-degree murder by a jury for their role in a 2013 shooting on Birdcage Street that left two dead after they were mistakenly associated with a rival gang, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office announced on Monday.
On May 21, 2013, David Javier Jaimes, then age 20, and Alex Martinez Camacho, then 18, were driving on Birdcage Street in a car with other North Sacra Norteño gang members when they saw “who they believed was a rival Sureño gang member talking with another man and woman,” the DA’s office said in a news release. The pair got out of the car, shot the victims multiple times and fled, leaving a 29-year-old and a 41-year-old dead at the scene.
Although the case initially went unsolved, investigators received a major breakthrough after Jaimes and Camacho were involved in another shooting a month later.
In that shooting, the pair again mistakenly believed they saw Sureño gang members in a truck and followed after it, accompanied by other gang members in their vehicle. While stopped at the intersection of Arden Way and Morse Avenue in Sacramento, one of the gang members opened fire on the truck — leaving the passenger critically wounded.
The shots were heard by a nearby sheriff’s deputy who pursued the gang members’ vehicle in a high-speed chase. During the pursuit, authorities said a handgun was thrown from the vehicle and was later recovered.
An examination of the weapon revealed a connection to the murders on Birdcage Street, and was also linked to a series of shootings in Sacramento and Citrus Heights. Investigators later determined Jaimes and Camacho were responsible “for the vast number of those shootings,” Monday’s news release said.
The pair were both convicted of murdering Gladis Quinteros and Enrique De La Cruz in the Birdcage shooting, as well as attempted murder. The DA’s office said jurors also found the pair committed the crimes for the benefit of a criminal street gang, an enhanced charge.
Jaimes and Camacho each face a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 180 years to life in prison. The pair are slated to be sentenced by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Maryanne Gilliard on Sept. 21.
Citrus Heights Police Chief Ron Lawrence told The Sentinel in an email on Wednesday he was pleased to hear the jury had found the two guilty.
“While the prison sentences they both face won’t bring the homicide victims back, I hope the victims’ families will find some solace upon the conviction of these two criminal street gang members,” he said. “I hope they both receive the maximum sentences they face.”
A third individual, Hayley Rogers, was also arrested in 2014 in connection with the shooting. DA Spokeswoman Shelly Orio said Rogers pled to two counts of assault with a semi-automatic firearm and admitted a gang allegation for each count, earning her a 10 year sentence in prison.
