People v. Manzano CA4/2

I. INTRODUCTION

Defendant and appellant, Mathew Ruben Manzano, was prosecuted as an aider

and abettor to the January 18, 2017, first-degree premeditated shooting and murder of

Carmen R. in a parking lot outside of a café in San Bernardino. (Pen. Code, § 187,

subd. (a);1 count 1.) Defendant was not the shooter; at the time of the murder, he was in

prison serving a sentence of life without parole (LWOP) for a 2005 murder.

Defendant was tried separately from other defendants for the murder. John Doe 2,

an undisputed accomplice to the murder and an in-custody informant, testified that

several incarcerated Mexican Mafia members or associates, including defendant,

participated in a telephone conference call or “mesa call” with John Doe 2, in which John

Doe 2 was ordered to see that Carmen R. was killed and that Isaac Aguirre would be the

shooter.

John Doe 2 planned the shooting, including its location, and witnessed it from his

vehicle. As planned, Aguirre shot and killed Carmen R. in the parking lot outside of the

café as she was walking toward John Doe 2’s car. Before the shooting, defendant sent

electronic messages to Carmen R.’s phone, giving her directions to the…