{"id":207026,"date":"2026-03-06T07:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T07:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/207026\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T07:53:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T07:53:12","slug":"california-gang-member-sentenced-to-50-years-for-murder-victim-was-shot-16-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/207026\/","title":{"rendered":"California gang member sentenced to 50 years for murder, victim was shot 16 times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A California gang member was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the shooting death of a man in Santa Maria.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Alfredo Junior Alaniz, 25, of Santa Maria, was sentenced for the murder of Mario Merino Gonzalez, 19, according to the Santa Barbara County District Attorney\u2018s Office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In the early morning hours of May 16, 2021,\u00a0Alaniz, who prosecutors said is a known gang member, shot and killed Gonzalez on North Lincoln Street.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He had shot the victim a total of 16 times, authorities said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Alaniz was later arrested by Santa Maria police and charged with the crime. On Dec. 11, 2025, he was found guilty by a jury of first-degree murder.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/santamariatimes.com\/news\/local\/crime-and-courts\/santa-maria-man-sentenced-to-50-years-to-life-in-state-prison-for-2021-murder\/article_6da6706d-11ec-4835-a344-bfdb7cd171cd.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:special allegations;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">special allegations<\/a> found true included that he committed the murder for the benefit of a criminal street gang, that he personally used a firearm and had discharged a firearm causing death.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">On March 4, 2026, Alaniz was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of 25 years to life in state prison, a total of 50 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThis case involved the senseless and brutal killing of a young man, and the loss his family suffered was profound,\u201d said Santa Barbara County District Attorney John Savrnoch. \u201cI am grateful to the jury for their service, and to the prosecution team led by Deputy District Attorney Nicholas Harmon for their commitment to seeing justice done. I also want to thank the Santa Maria Police Department for their tireless work in investigating this case, especially Santa Maria Police Detectives Ryan Preast and Joshua Yee.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ktla.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A California gang member was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the shooting death of a man&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,95527,9,8,95526,32677,95523,95524,1800,34696,95525],"class_list":["post-207026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-gang-member","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-criminal-street-gang","tag-gang-member","tag-junior-alaniz","tag-mario-merino-gonzalez","tag-santa-barbara-county","tag-santa-maria","tag-santa-maria-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207026","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=207026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}