LOS ANGELES (CN) - A gangbanger on Monday was sentenced to 40 years in prison on RICO charges: killing an innocent young man by shooting him in the back in front of his 2-year-old son.
Anthony Gabourel, 23, a Blood, "executed" 24-year-old Francisco Cornelio, "who was minding his own business," simply because "he was of Mexican descent," U.S. District Judge James Otero said in sentencing Gabourel.
Cornelio had no gang affiliation and the Bloods shot him in the back without a word, because a Latino gang had killed a Blood, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
"Prosecutors asserted that Gabrourel and another Pueblo Bishop [Blood], armed with shotguns, ambushed the unarmed Cornelio while he was vacuuming his car with his young son. The Pueblo Bishops shot Cornelio once in the back without saying a word. Federal prosecutors argued to Judge Otero that Gabrourel was the shooter," according to the U.S. attorney's statement.
A state jury acquitted Gabourel of the shooting in August 2011.
Two men tried with him were convicted: Gary White, 47, of Los Angeles and Victorville, was sentenced to 14 years in prison; Jermaine Hardiman, 31, of South Los Angeles, will be sentenced on April 8.
"The Pueblo Bishops Bloods street gang has been active in and around the Pueblo Del Housing Projects of Los Angeles for decades," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in the statement. "This case is the first federal RICO action in this district alleging that a Bloods or Crips street gang was a racketeering enterprise."
Forty-five defendants have been federally charged in the gang investigation, prosecutors said, and 40 have been convicted.
Two defendants are in state jail and two are fugitives.
The 45th defendant, Rondale Young, charged with conspiring with Gabourel in the murder of Cornelio, is to be tried before Judge Otero on Nov. 5.
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