Fresno gang member who fought with jailers has 85 years added to life sentence

A Fresno man serving life in prison without parole for a 2014 killing was sentenced Thursday to an additional 85 years to life in prison for assaulting two Fresno County Jail correctional officers who caught him making alcohol called pruno in his cell.

In September 2017, a Fresno Superior Court jury convicted Jessie Aguilar, 43, of killing Fernando Zapata, 59, and wounding his son, Fernando Zapata Jr., 36, outside a home in southeast Fresno to avenge the killing of one of Aguilar’s associates.

While awaiting sentencing, Aguilar fought with correctional officers after they found him making pruno inside his cell on Sept. 22, 2017, prosecutor Sean Brunton said Thursday.

During the altercation, Aguilar dislocated one officer’s elbow and another officer suffered cuts and scratches, court records said. To subdue Aguilar, a correctional officer had to use a choke hold on him, the records said.

Aguilar is a member of the Calwa Varrio Locos, a subset of the Bulldogs street gang. The Zapatas were associated with the rival Bond Street Bulldogs gang. The victims were shot around 11:40 a.m. Jan. 1, 2014, outside a home on Mono Avenue near First Street and Ventura Avenue.

During Aguilar’s trial last September, the key evidence came from the Mono Avenue home’s surveillance video cameras. Videos did not capture the shooting. But moments after gunfire erupted, the videos show Aguilar holding a gun and running toward a van.

A month after his conviction, Aguilar was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

On Thursday, Aguilar’s family and friends filled Judge Kristi Culver Kapetan’s courtroom, seeking mercy for the defendant, who was in shackles and surrounded by four sheriff’s bailiffs.

Brunton, a deputy district attorney, argued that Aguilar was a career criminal who didn’t deserve leniency. Aguilar’s supporters, however, said he was different person around family and friends.

“To his family, he means the world to us,” said Myra Aguilar, his sister-in-law.

Myra Aguilar said her brother-in-law always encourages children in their family to do well in school and stay out of trouble. “To be different from him,” she said.

His father, Jesus Aguilar, also told the judge Jessie Aguilar is a good son. The elder Aguilar and other supporters complained to the judge that the correctional officers started the altercation. They said they picked on Jessie Aguilar, knowing he was down and out from being convicted on murder and attempted murder charges.

But Kapetan said none of Jessie Aguilar’s supporters had heard the evidence during his trial on felony battery charges. “He committed the crime and he must be held accountable,” Kapetan said.

Kapetan said Aguilar has been trouble since 1987. Every time he was freed from prison, he committed a new crime, the judge said.

In addition to making alcohol in his cell, Aguilar was arrested in in July 2017 for possession of a sharp instrument in jail, court records say.

In announcing the punishment, Kapetan said it was troubling that Aguilar had regularly “victimized the community.” Even worse, the judge said, “he has victimized the people who love him.”

This story was originally published July 26, 2018 at 2:39 PM.