30-Year Sentence Is Given in Drive-By Slaying

An Imperial Beach man was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years to life in prison for killing a bystander during a drive-by shooting.

Superior Court Judge Richard Murphy sentenced Anthony William Trevino, 19, who was convicted June 4 of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Alfredo Rodriguez, a 41-year-old shipyard foreman.

After Trevino was handcuffed by marshals, family members were allowed to say goodby and hug him. Trevino’s grandmother fell to the floor.

The killing occurred as Trevino and three other men were seeking retaliation for a minor traffic dispute on Interstate 5. A Chevrolet Blazer cut off a vehicle carrying three of the men in the case, and they followed it to a mobile-home park in Nestor.

After picking up a fourth man who had a semiautomatic 9-millimeter handgun, Trevino fired into the Blazer, which was parked and unoccupied. But, as their car rounded a corner, Trevino shot Rodriguez, who was standing on the curb.

Rodriguez, who was saying goodby to the last guest at his daughter’s 7th birthday party, died after a bullet went through his heart.

The same jury that convicted Trevino also determined that Robert Windel Connelly, 21, of Imperial Beach, and Carlos Ernesto Gutierrez, 19, of Chula Vista, were guilty of involuntary manslaughter because they participated in a conspiracy to commit a drive-by shooting.

Connelly will be sentenced Wednesday. Gutierrez is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday.

A fourth man in the case, Joseph Kinsey, 19, of Imperial Beach, pleaded guilty to one felony count of shooting an unoccupied vehicle. Kinsey, who testified against the other three, will be sentenced Friday.