{"id":280807,"date":"2026-04-22T20:35:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T20:35:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/280807\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T20:35:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T20:35:39","slug":"sentence-handed-down-for-fresno-man-who-killed-rival-seriously-injured-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/280807\/","title":{"rendered":"Sentence handed down for Fresno man who killed rival, seriously injured woman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The gunman in a 2023 gang-related murder was sentenced Tuesday to life without parole, according to the Fresno County District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Malik Nichols, 30, of Fresno was convicted by a Fresno County jury March 18 for first-degree <a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fresnobee.com\/news\/local\/crime\/article277851813.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:murder in the June 2023;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">murder in the June 2023<\/a> fatal shooting of Ibrahim Muhammad in southwest Fresno. Nichols\u2019s attorney could not be immediately reached for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A woman not involved in the gang conflict <a data-yga=\"{\" ylinkelement=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fresnobee.com\/news\/local\/crime\/article276262916.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:was also seriously injured by gunfire;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">was also seriously injured by gunfire<\/a> in the incident, which took place in a neighborhood northwest of Church and Elm avenues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Nichols fired into a group of people, striking Muhammad three times and hitting the 57-year-old woman in the head, police said. She survived but lives with life-altering injuries, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Police used comments made by Nichols on social media to determine he was involved in the premeditated slaying, according to the DA\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Fresno police said in August 2023 they determined Nichols was responsible for the fatal shooting two months earlier, but by then he was in custody for an unrelated incident. He had opened fire \u201cin broad daylight\u201d at another victim three days before the murder, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Nichols was arrested in July 2023 in Seattle, where he fled after the murder, according to the DA\u2019s Office. He was on parole and being monitored with an ankle device for a prior strike on his record for assault with a firearm, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Ibrahim Muhammad, 43, was killed Thursday, June 8, 2023, by gunfire, according to police.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/33f9253f94e2109b7e3200a12edcfd7e.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Ibrahim Muhammad, 43, was killed Thursday, June 8, 2023, by gunfire, according to police.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Malik Nichols, 30, of Fresno was sentenced on Tuesday, April 21, 2026, to life in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of murder with gang enhancements, according to the Fresno County District Attorney\u2019s Office.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/aa197d936fcf79f5bd4e830cc39ac60c.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Malik Nichols, 30, of Fresno was sentenced on Tuesday, April 21, 2026, to life in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of murder with gang enhancements, according to the Fresno County District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The gunman in a 2023 gang-related murder was sentenced Tuesday to life without parole, according to the Fresno&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,622,114,113,3695,102962,102964],"class_list":{"0":"post-280807","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-county","10":"tag-fresno-headlines","11":"tag-fresno-news","12":"tag-fresno-police","13":"tag-ibrahim-muhammad","14":"tag-malik-nichols"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280807","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=280807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}