{"id":171863,"date":"2026-02-10T13:26:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T13:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/171863\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T13:26:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T13:26:29","slug":"2-men-sentenced-for-2022-killing-of-divinity-student-on-telegraph-avenue-crime-and-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/171863\/","title":{"rendered":"2 men sentenced for 2022 killing of divinity student on Telegraph Avenue | Crime and Safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Feb. 5, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Rozlynn Silvaggio sentenced two men for the fatal shooting<\/a> of 29-year-old divinity student Isamaeli Mata\u2019afa on Telegraph Avenue in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to police accounts, Mata\u2019afa was with a group of family members in the early hours of Oct. 8, 2022 when they got into an argument with Andy Gutierrez-Rebollo and Michael Monrroy-Ramos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The two men then repeatedly shot at the group, injuring Mata\u2019afa and several of his family members. Mata\u2019afa was transported to Highland Hospital in Oakland, where he was later pronounced dead.<\/p>\n

Gutierrez-Rebollo and Monrroy-Ramos were arrested a few weeks later. According to the initial complaint filed Nov. 28, 2022, they were both charged with Mata\u2019afa\u2019s murder and three counts each of the attempted murder of Mata\u2019afa\u2019s family members.<\/p>\n

According to court testimony reported by The Berkeley Scanner, police were neither able to recover the firearms used in the altercation nor determine who fired the fatal shot.<\/p>\n

Gutierrez-Rebollo took a plea deal that was presented in a Jan. 7, 2026, disposition, where he pled no contest to voluntary manslaughter and assault with a firearm; he admitted to \u201cspecial alleged use\u201d of a firearm and \u201ccircumstance in aggravation.\u201d Monrroy-Ramos also took a plea deal in which he pleaded no contest to assault with a firearm and admitted to the same two charges as Gutierrez-Rebollo.<\/p>\n

The rest of the men\u2019s charges were dismissed by the court at a Feb. 5 disposition pursuant to negotiated plea deals. Both men will serve their sentences at the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center; Gutierrez-Rebollo was sentenced to 14 years, while Monrroy-Ramos was sentenced to eight.<\/p>\n

Mata\u2019afa, known affectionately as \u201cEli,\u201d moved to the United States as a teenager and was the primary breadwinner of his family, according to a GoFundMe page established by his sister in 2022 to pay for his funeral expenses. Prior to his passing, Mata\u2019afa was pursuing a master of divinity at the Pacific School of Religion, or PSR.<\/p>\n

According to an article by PSR, Mata\u2019afa was a youth leader for the Samoan Congregational Christian Church of Oakland and led weekly church food banks and neighborhood cleanups. Mata\u2019afa also helped provide Samoan youth with opportunities and resources within the Bay Area. The school has since named a community garden after him, the article added.<\/p>\n

\u201cEli was a deeply loved member of our community at Pacific School of Religion,\u201d said Jacob Perez, PSR\u2019s senior communications director in a statement. \u201cHe was a gifted student, a person of profound faith, and a compassionate leader committed to youth, family, and the well-being of the Pacific Islander community and the wider world. His life and calling continue to shape our community, and his loss remains profoundly felt.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Feb. 5, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Rozlynn Silvaggio sentenced two men for the fatal shooting of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[21725,82316,33317,82315,82322,82317,143,145,144,82320,82314,82321,82319,13774,82318],"class_list":["post-171863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-alameda-county-superior-court","tag-andy-gutierrez-rebollo","tag-highland-hospital","tag-isamaeli-mataafa","tag-jacob-perez","tag-michael-monrroy-ramos","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-pacific-school-of-religion","tag-rozlynn-silvaggio","tag-samoan-congregational-christian-church-of-oakland","tag-san-quentin-rehabilitation-center","tag-telegraph-avenue","tag-the-berkeley-scanner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}