Two Gilroy teens have pleaded
”
no contest
”
to gun and gang charges connecting them to a non-fatal
retaliation drive-by shooting last November.
Two Gilroy teens have pleaded “no contest” to gun and gang charges connecting them to a non-fatal retaliation drive-by shooting last November.
Joshua Williams and Israel Juarez, both 19, both pleaded no contest earlier this month to one felony count each of willfully discharging a firearm at the corner of IOOF Avenue and Monterey Street the afternoon of Nov. 13, according to court documents. They also accepted the court’s allegations that they did so in connection with the Norteño street gang, though Williams’ family members have vehemently denied this. The drive-by shooting came days after a fatal gang-related homicide a few blocks away.
Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Edward Lee is scheduled to hand down his sentence next month. The defendants face up to four years in prison each and have already served six months in county jail. In return for their no contest pleas – which function as guilty pleas in the sentencing process – the district attorney dropped additional charges shooting at an occupied building from a vehicle. Those charges carried sentences ranging from five years to life in prison.
Testimonies during the preliminary hearing and police reports were unclear as to whether Williams or Juarez had been in Juarez’s older brother’s black Honda Civic, which had a .380 caliber bullet casing lodged in the base of the windshield after the shooting. The casing matched those found at the crime scene, but defense attorneys argued there was no forensic link.
During previous court appearances, police officers identified Juarez as a known Norteño gang member who took up arms to avenge the death of Larry Martinez Jr., another suspected Norteño gang member. Three unknown men gunned down and killed Martinez Nov. 11, less than a month after Martinez had finished serving years in the juvenile detention system, according to his family members. Those three men remain at large.
Police arrested Juarez and Williams outside the Honda in front of Juarez’s home along the 500 block of Hadley Court a few hours after the Nov. 13 shooting, which did not injure anyone but broke some car windows and marked a building facade. Inside the Juarez household, which sits across the street from the Williams’ home, police found a photo of Martinez and a box with a hole in the top and a message asking for donations to help pay for the funeral. Police searched the home of Ida Williams – Joshua Williams’ mother – six days later after smashing in the door and throwing her to the ground, she said, but they did not find any gang-related evidence that was brought up in court.
Deputy District Attorney Troy Benson harped on the box during the preliminary examination, pointing to it as evidence that, among other things, the Nov. 13 shooting was vengeance for Martinez. The box was one of about four that Williams’ friend and Juarez’s 16-year-old sister, Ariana Juarez, said she was using to collect donations. The sister said she was being helped by her mother, Evelia Garcia, who owns the home and gave police permission to search it that day.
Officer Jason Kadluboski, who told the court he speaks “very little” Spanish, reported overhearing Ariana Juarez telling her Spanish-speaking mother that Williams had driven the car last, but she did not specify when and where he may have driven. Later in court, she denied ever saying that at all.
Click here to read the details of the case.
