People v. Soria CA1/2

BACKGROUND

Late one evening in June 2021, police went to a home in McKinleyville, California, after receiving a report that someone had been shot. When police arrived, D.E. told them a man had entered his home, shot him, and might still be in his house.

1 Undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.

1 Officers found 10 bullet holes inside the house. Outside, they found 11 bullet casings, a discarded semiautomatic firearm, and a fully loaded revolver. The semiautomatic had a magazine capacity of 32 bullets; in the gun’s chamber and magazine were 31 unexpended bullets. One bullet had a casing that matched the bullet casings found outside D.E.’s home. Eventually, police found and arrested Soria. During an interview with police, Soria revealed his ties to the “ ‘north side’ gang’ ” and admitted that he was a hitman who was “paid to kill.” He said that D.E. had “ ‘fucked with someone that’s part of [his] gang’ ” by stealing marijuana, so he “ ‘emptied . . . a seventeen round clip’ ” into D.E.’s home. Soria told police D.E. had thousands of dollars’ worth of marijuana and he was supposed to get “everything . . . in [D.E.’s] house.” However, D.E. “ ‘pulled an assault…