A man who carried out a trio of apparently random shootings in Encanto, Bay Terraces and Spring Valley — killing one man and injuring several other people — was sentenced Friday to 86 years to life in state prison.
Jaime Ernesto Gonzalez, 24, opened fire on seven victims during a shooting spree that unfolded on the night of Jan. 27, 2023, over the course of just over an hour, according to prosecutors.
Police said the victims were targeted at random, with Gonzalez driving up to each group, getting out of his car and opening fire.
At the final shooting scene, Gonzalez both shot and stabbed 32-year-old Raul Rojas Valdez to death, prosecutors said.
Police found Gonzalez about a half-hour after the killing on Paradise Valley Road in his parked vehicle, which matched the description of the shooter’s car.
Investigators said they found an unserialized “ghost gun” inside the car, ammunition in the center console, a bloody knife on his waistband and blood on the center portion of the steering wheel.
Gonzalez was convicted by a San Diego Superior Court jury last year of first-degree murder and five counts of attempted murder, with one attempted murder count dismissed. He was sentenced to 51 years to life for Rojas Valdez’s murder, plus five consecutive sentences of seven years to life for the attempted murder counts.
At Friday’s sentencing hearing, San Diego Superior Court Judge Joan Weber said that, based on the evidence, it appeared Gonzalez “wanted to kill as many people as he possibly could.”
The judge said, “This case should frighten every member of this community,” and cited the ease with which Gonzalez was able to obtain a ghost gun to carry out the shooting spree. Evidence in the trial showed Gonzalez reached out to three people over social media on Jan. 26 and Jan. 27 and likely obtained the weapon from one of those people sometime on the day of the shootings.
“We have one dead young man, and it’s shocking to me that we don’t have six other murders here,” the judge said.
Prosecutors said Gonzalez first opened fire on a man on Dovecrest Court in Spring Valley around 8 p.m. while the victim was helping his neighbor with her car. Gonzalez drove up to the man and opened fire from about 10 yards away, but the bullet missed the victim and struck a house, according to testimony.
About 20 minutes later, prosecutors said Gonzalez shot at a group of teenage boys outside the 62nd Street trolley station.
Metropolitan Transit System surveillance footage captured the shooter’s vehicle driving past the boys as they walked along Akins Avenue. The car then made a U-turn, and its driver got out and started shooting at the teens, who took off running. Three of the boys — all of whom were 15 years old at the time — were wounded by gunfire, according to testimony.
Around 9:15 p.m., the shooter’s vehicle passed two men standing near an electrical box on Manzana Way and similarly made a U-turn and stopped next to the men, prosecutors said.
One of the men, Rojas Valdez, was shot five times in the back, Deputy District Attorney Melissa Mack said. After he was shot, Gonzalez then went back to his car and retrieved a knife, then stabbed Rojas Valdez more than 10 times, according to the prosecutor.
After the sentencing hearing, District Attorney Summer Stephan issued a statement that read, “This defendant terrorized the community by driving to different locations to commit shootings on strangers. He has been held to account for the cruel and cowardly murder of Raul Rojas Valdez who was shot and stabbed by the defendant, along with the harm he inflicted on other innocent victims including three minors. We hope his conviction and sentence brings a measure of justice to the victim’s family and the community.”
