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Judge gives man 141 years for multiple shootings, murder in Citrus Heights

Dashawn Tinsley, Citrus Heights
Dashawn Tinsley was sentenced to 141 years to life in prison on Friday for 2015 shootings and a murder in Citrus Heights.

Sentinel staff report–
One of the men found guilty by a jury earlier this year for several shootings and the 2015 murder of a 19-year-old in Citrus Heights has been given the maximum sentence possible for his crimes, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office said on Friday.

Dashawn Kwama Tinsley, 24, was sentenced to 141 years to life in prison by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Curtis Fiorini. His accomplice, RV Allahali Watson, 28, is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 28 and is facing a maximum sentence of 192 years to life in prison, the DA’s office said.

As previously reported by The Sentinel, both men were convicted by a jury in June for the first-degree murder of Andrew VanHunnik, who was found shot to death in a car on Dec. 28, 2015, at the Creekside Colony apartments on Kingswood Drive, near Sunrise Boulevard. The pair were also found guilty of three counts of premeditated attempted murder and jurors additionally found the two “fired firearms causing great bodily injury or death to three separate victims.”

From June: Jury finds pair guilty of murdering 19-year-old in Citrus Heights

Two others were in the car with VanHunnik, one of whom escaped after being shot five times. Despite the car being found “riddled with bullets,” authorities said the other occupant escaped without being shot.

The jury also found that Tinsley and Watson were the shooters in an attempted murder four days prior to VanHunnik’s shooting. In that incident, a 26-year-old man was shot on Christmas Eve as he exited his car outside his mother’s house on Donegal Drive in Citrus Heights. The DA’s office said he was shot three times, leaving him with a broken arm.

The pair were arrested in 2016, following a lengthy investigation where Citrus Heights Police Department detectives were able to locate witnesses and evidence that established Tinsley and Watson as the shooters in both incidents, the news release stated. Police previously said the investigation spanned an eight month period involving several hundred hours of interviews and more than 50 search warrants.

Although not included in Friday’s news release, a third man, 22-year-old Dennis Gibson, was also arrested in connection with the Christmas Eve shooting. According to court records, he was sentenced to eight months in prison on June 1, after pleading no-contest to a felony charge that he played an accessory role after the shooting.

The case was prosecuted by Sacramento County Deputy District Attorney Satnam Rattu, with the Gangs and Hate Crimes Unit. DA Spokeswoman Shelly Orio said although the jury heard evidence that the offenses were gang related, no gang allegations were filed in the case.

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