Parolee convicted in drug robbery murder

SAN DIEGO  —  A parolee accused of fatally shooting a man during a drug deal in the Skyline neighborhood last year was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder.

Ronnie Leroy Bonaparte, 28, was tried in connection with the death of Jonathan Gonzalez, 24, who died of a gunshot wound to his chest. The jury deliberated about a day.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Fraser scheduled a Nov. 16 sentencing hearing for Bonaparte. He faces a possible sentence of 80 years to life in prison.

According to previous testimony, the shooting occurred the afternoon of June 6, 2011, on Chester Street near Lisbon and 69th streets.

A witness heard the shot and saw a person shove something into his pocket. The person was driven away in the passenger seat of a Cadillac.

Police were led to Bonaparte through the victim’s cellphone records. He was arrested June 8, 2011, at a motel where he and his girlfriend had been staying. At one point, he tried to escape through a third-story window.

Deputy District Attorney Christine Bannon told the jury Tuesday that Bonaparte was down to his last $30 the day before the shooting, when he told his girlfriend he was going to get more money. He began talking to a man who put him in contact with Gonzalez.

But instead of going through with the transaction as discussed, Bonaparte killed the victim and stole the drugs, the prosecutor said.

“The defendant put cash and crack over the value of a human life,” Bannon said in her closing argument, “and for that he is guilty.”

His girlfriend repeatedly lied to police about his involvement in the shooting, but later told the truth after learning some of the derogatory comments Bonaparte had made about her to the mother of his child, the prosecutor said.

The girlfriend told police that she had loaned Bonaparte her great-grandmother’s Cadillac the day of the shooting. Later, he and another man returned to the motel, looking shaken. She said Bonaparte told her he had fired a gun at someone, hitting him the stomach.

Police found the Cadillac and recovered a shell casing in the trunk that was the same size as the bullet recovered from Gonzalez’s body.

Defense lawyer Edward Kinsey argued that other people, not his client, may have been in the Cadillac the day of the shooting. A witness described two men in the car that had a lighter complexion than Bonaparte. The attorney also argued that the girlfriend’s testimony was not trustworthy.

Bonaparte was on parole stemming from a 2002 robbery conviction. In 2008, he was featured in a two-part series published in the San Diego Union-Tribune that focused on Bonaparte’s struggle to turn his life around after his release from prison.