{"id":99209,"date":"2025-12-18T03:56:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T03:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/99209\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T03:56:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T03:56:14","slug":"man-sentenced-to-15-years-to-life-for-fatal-wasco-shooting-of-teen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/99209\/","title":{"rendered":"Man sentenced to 15 years to life for fatal Wasco shooting of teen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 A 21-year-old man was sentenced on Tuesday to 15 years to life in prison for the fatal shooting of <a href=\"https:\/\/bakersfieldnow.com\/news\/local\/16-year-old-boy-shot-and-killed-in-wasco-identified\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">16-year-old Adrian Esparza<\/a> in Wasco in 2023, according to Kern County Superior Court officials. Juan Romero was denied probation. <\/p>\n<p>The incident happened on Jan. 19, 2023, when deputies responded to 6th Street and Cedar Avenue, near Wasco High School, at around 4:48 p.m. They found Esparza suffering from a gunshot wound.<\/p>\n<p>PREVIOUS REPORTING: <a href=\"https:\/\/bakersfieldnow.com\/news\/local\/deputies-investigating-major-injury-shooting-in-wasco\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Teen hurt following shooting in Wasco<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The coroner&#8217;s report stated he was taken to Kern Medical, where he died a few days later on Jan. 21, 2023.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"{p}KCSO investigates a shooting of a teen in Wasco. PHOTO: KBAK\/FOX58{\/p}\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/22da3c1b-6aa7-483a-998c-4d9d72e46908-large16x9_MicrosoftTeamsimage95.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>KCSO investigates a shooting of a teen in Wasco. PHOTO: KBAK\/FOX58<\/p>\n<p>Romero pleaded no contest in November 2025, according to the Kern County Superior Court website.<\/p>\n<p>Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n<p>BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT<\/p>\n<p>Romero was credited with 980 days served and will serve his sentence at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 A 21-year-old man was sentenced on Tuesday to 15 years to life in prison for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":{"0":"post-99209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bakersfield","8":"tag-bakersfield","9":"tag-bakersfield-headlines","10":"tag-bakersfield-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99209","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=99209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}