Mejia

After gang taunts between Norteños and Sureños at a swap meet in Visalia, witnesses observed brothers Ismael and Sergio Mejia flashing hand signs, yelling “Reyes” (the Spanish name of a subset of the Sureño gang), and firing guns right before one bullet just missed Isaac Tobias (a Norteño) and another bullet struck Noel Chávez (a Mend of Tobias’s but not a gang member) on February 12, 2006.

A jury found Ismael guilty of (1) attempted willful, deliberate, and premeditated murder of Chávez for the benefit of a criminal street gang with personal and intentional discharge of a firearm by a principal causing great bodily injury, (2) assault with a firearm on Chávez for the benefit of a criminal street gang, and (3) possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine). (Pen. Code, §§ 186.22, subd. (b), 187, subd. (a), 189, 245, subd. (a)(2), 664, subd. (a), 12022.53, subds. (d), (e)(1); Health & Saf. Code, § 11377, subd. (a).)

At Ismael’s probation and sentencing hearing, the trial court (1) imposed a life with possibility of parole term for the attempted willful, deliberate, and premeditated murder of Chávez plus a consecutive 25-year-to-life term on the firearm…