Two teenagers who were acting as hired guns for the Sinaloa Cartel when they committed a pair of shootings in Chula Vista that left two men wounded and one of their accomplices dead have both received long prison sentences.
Andrew “Shooter” Nunez, 16, and Johncarlo “Dumper” Quintero, 17, pleaded guilty to federal charges in connection with the March 2024 attacks that occurred outside a Chili’s restaurant and a Chula Vista apartment. On Friday, the pair were each sentenced by U.S. District Judge Todd W. Robinson to 25 years for their roles in the crime spree on March 26-27, 2024.
The boys, who were both 15 years old at the time, pleaded guilty to the attempted murders of two men on behalf of a Mexican Mafia-affiliated gang based out of Los Angeles County, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which said on Friday that the teens expected to be paid about $50,000 each for committing the murder.
“California Senate Bill 1391 made state prosecutions of 14- and 15-year-olds a practical impossibility regardless of the seriousness of the crime. Then, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Mexican Mafia-affiliated Westside Wilmas recruited accordingly,” said U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon in a statement released Friday. “No. No to the Sinaloa Cartel recruiting juveniles. No to the Mexican Mafia directing gangland hits in San Diego. No to a lack of consequences for juveniles who would do their bidding.”
Both victims were shot, but survived.
Nunez and Quintero also pleaded guilty to murder for the shooting death of their accomplice, 28-year-old Ricardo Sanchez. Sanchez was fatally shot by one of the attempted murder targets in self-defense and under the provocative act murder doctrine, the defendants were held accountable for his killing.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Nunez and Quintero were specifically recruited because of their age, as they would not be prosecuted by the state as adults.