Inmate from Fresno gets another life sentence for trying to set up murder from prison cell
A Calwa gang member, who helped coordinate gang activity — including attempted murder — from his prison cell, was sentenced to 25-years-to-life in prison Wednesday.
Police said Jessie Aguilar, 47, used a smuggled cell phone and an encrypted phone app to discuss gang business while he was locked up in the Salinas Valley State prison serving a life term for murder.
One of those conversations was the plot to gun down a rival near Calwa Park in southeast Fresno. That message, however, between Aguilar and Juan Venegas, 40, was intercepted by law enforcement officers who had been investigating the Calwa Varrios Locos Bulldogs gang for three months.
In October, Aguilar, and Venegas, were among 14 people charged with several crimes including, attempted murder, murder and gun possession.
Aguilar and Venegas were facing five felonies, including conspiracy to commit murder, possession of a machine gun and possession of a firearm by a felon.
The two men were set to start their trial on Feb. 9. But they decided at the last minute to agree to plead no contest for a single charge of attempted murder.
Venegas was also due to be sentenced Wednesday, but he remained at the Fresno County Jail under a COVID-19 quarantine. He will be sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
Others arrested during the October operation are winding their way through the justice systems.
Christina Pauline Lopez, 42, is charged with 22 felonies, including conspiracy to sell or transfer firearms without a license, conspiracy to sell or transfer firearms to a person under 21 and carrying a loaded firearm in public. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is scheduled to be in court on April 6 in Dept. 31.
Law enforcement officials have accused Lopez of buying firearms with the money she received in a settlement from the city of Fresno after her son Isiah Murrietta-Golding, 16, was killed as he fled from police on April 16, 2017.
The city agreed to pay $4.9 million to her in the case. A video of the shooting, released in October 2019, shows Sgt. Ray Villalvazo firing a single round that struck the back of the head of the fleeing Murrietta-Golding.
This story was originally published March 9, 2022 at 3:51 PM.
