A 40-year-old man has been convicted of shooting two men outside of a La Habra bar because one of the victims wanted to quit a gang, according to court records obtained Wednesday.
Nestor Alberto Ortiz Rico of La Habra was convicted Monday of attempted murder with sentencing enhancements for premeditation and deliberation, inflicting great bodily injury, discharge of a gun causing great bodily injury as well as two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, all felonies. Jurors acquitted him of a count of attempted murder.
The defendant is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 11.
The shooting happened April 19, 2019, outside El Rinconcito Bar, 2061 W. Lambert Road.
Rico approached the victim in the bar about 9:30 p.m. and asked him “why he was no longer actively participating in the gang,” prosecutors said in a trial brief.
The victim replied he had children now and just concluded a 7-year prison term so he didn’t want any part of the gang anymore, prosecutors said.
The two got into an argument, prompting the bar manager to kick the defendant out, prosecutors said. Rico went home, got a gun and returned to the bar about 11:30 p.m. and hollered at the victim, prompting the bar manager to tell him to leave, prosecutors said.
Rico fired into the bar as the victim went to rejoin his friends, prosecutors said. When the bar manager tried to snatch the gun away, Rico shoved him aside and shot at the victim. The former gang member was wounded in the leg and chest while the bar manager sustained two gunshot wounds to his arm and stomach, prosecutors said.