Fresno gunman gets 80-year sentence; one of his victims dies in unrelated car crash

A 23-year-old Fresno man was sentenced Thursday to 80 years to life in prison for seriously wounding two people – including a woman who survived the June 2014 shooting but died a year later in a car crash after testifying against the defendant.

Tabarri Maurice Townsend was convicted last month in Fresno County Superior Court of six felony charges, including attempted murder, assault with a firearm, being a felon with a firearm and shooting at an occupied car.

Fresno police said Jose Mendoza, 22, and Cecelia Hernandez, 18, were sitting in a Chrysler PT Cruiser in front of Hernandez’s home south of Fresno Chandler Executive Airport when a small, dark sedan pulled up alongside them just before 3 a.m. on June 29, 2014.

Three people were in the dark sedan. Someone asked the couple where they were from. After a heated exchange, a passenger in the back seat of the sedan shot into the PT Cruiser.

Hernandez was shot in the abdomen; Mendoza was shot in the arm.

Both victims testified in Townsend’s trial in August this year.

During the trial, Fresno defense lawyer Curtis Sok, who represented Townsend, contended his client wasn’t the shooter. Sok pointed out that Mendoza initially told police that a Mexican man shot him. Townsend is black.

Sok also told the jury that Townsend was visiting a relative when the shooting happened.

But on Aug. 13, the 15th day of the trial, the jury found Townsend guilty of all charges.

Hernandez was killed in a car crash Aug. 10. California Highway Patrol investigators say that just after midnight Hernandez was driving an Acura west on Millerton Road at 70 to 75 miles an hour when she lost control on a curve near Friant Road. The Acura collided with an eastbound Honda. Hernandez and Lucero Aguirre, 14, were ejected from the Acura and died at the scene. Another Acura passenger, Selena Hicks, 18, suffered major injuries.

This story was originally published September 24, 2015 at 4:41 PM with the headline "Fresno gunman gets 80-year sentence; one of his victims dies in unrelated car crash."