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The man accused of carrying out a 2022 shooting near the Menlo Park Caltrain station was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
East Palo Alto resident Sosefo Ahofono, 20, pleaded no contest on Aug. 31 to charges of attempted murder and use of a firearm in the shooting that left one person injured. San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Jackson denied Ahofono probation and handed down the sentence on Oct. 20, which includes 15 years in prison and a $370 fine.
On Aug. 21, 2022, Ahofono opened fire on a car in the parking lot of the 7-Eleven on Oak Grove Avenue and Alma Street, across from the Caltrain station, injuring one person. Ahofono had “conflict” with the victim in the past and fired 16 rounds from his rifle into the victim’s truck before fleeing in his car, according to a case summary from the county District Attorney’s Office.
Jonathan McDougall, Ahofono’s lawyer, did not respond to a request for comment.
San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said he’s happy with the outcome. The attempted murder and firearm charges could have carried a sentence of up to life in prison, but Wagstaffe said his team weighed multiple factors in the case when negotiating the plea deal, including that this was Ahofono’s first offense, that he was 20 years old at the time of the shooting and that the shooting took place in an area with a lot of foot traffic.
“I do believe justice was done in this case,” Wagstaffe told The Almanac. “He’ll have a good number of years to think about what he did and hopefully decide he never wants to be in criminal justice again.”
