People v. Villareal CA6

I. Background

Gang violence between Norteños and Sureños spiked in Salinas during the first two weeks of January 2009. There were “nearly a dozen shootings” and “five or six” were fatal. At a January 15 briefing, Monterey County Joint Gang Task Force members received information that a green minivan used in one of the homicides and a white Nissan Altima taken in another might be at one of several body shops “getting painted or 2 getting some kind of work done on it to alter its appearance.” JR’s Body Shop on Dayton Street was one of the shops mentioned. Fletes owned and operated the business in an industrial area of Salinas. His shop was the first in a row of warehouses that faced another row of warehouses across a shared parking lot that opened onto Dayton Street. Monterey County Deputy Sheriffs Jesse Pinon and Bryan Hoskins and probation officers Leo Salas and Chris Plummer were assigned to the gang task force in January 2009. At around 7:00 p.m. on January 15, Pinon and Salas drove to Fletes’s body shop in an unmarked car to conduct surveillance. The other businesses in the area were closed but the shop lights were on. A large…