Vu

Introduction

During the evening of June 7, 2002, 14-year-old Eddie Fernandez and several of his friends went to a cybercafé in Garden Grove and played games there. Eddie Fernandez never returned home. In the early morning of June 8, 2002, while on his way home, he was gunned down and bled to death.

Young Eddie Fernandez was the innocent victim of a conspiracy among members, associates, and friends of a criminal street gang. The conspirators sought revenge against a rival street gang. Fernandez and his friends who had accompanied him to the cybercafé were not gang members or associated with any street gang. The conspirators killed Eddie Fernandez because they mistook him and his friends for rival gang members. Eddie Fernandez was yet another innocent victim of criminal street gangs.

A jury convicted Andrew Khac Vu, a member of the Tiny Rascals Gang (TRG), of conspiracy to commit the murder of Eddie Fernandez (Pen. Code, § 182, subd. (a)(1)) (count 1); first degree murder (id., § 187, subd. (a)) (count 2); and street terrorism (id., § 186.22, subd. (a)) (count 3). The jury found true the allegation that Vu committed the crimes in counts 1 and 2 for the benefit of a…