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A San Mateo County jury on Thursday, Aug. 31, found Jerry Coneal III, a 23-year-old resident of Menlo Park, to be guilty of one count of first-degree murder in connection with the October 2012 shooting death of a rival gang member in East Palo Alto.
The jury also determined that Mr. Coneal had lain in wait for his victim, and that the homicide had been committed “for gang purposes,” according to a report by District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.
The penalties for such crimes are prescribed, said Sean Gallagher, a deputy district attorney who supervises cases that involve homicide and gangs. First-degree murder with special circumstances such as lying in wait and gang affiliations carries a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, he said.
The fact that Mr. Coneal also used a firearm with deadly force adds a sentence of 25 years to life, Mr. Gallagher said. With this trial over, Mr. Coneal now faces another trial on a murder charge in Santa Clara County, Mr. Gallagher said.
Sentencing in San Mateo County is scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20. Mr. Coneal is in custody in the county jail on a no-bail status.
In an email, Peter Arian, Mr. Coneal’s defense attorney, said he had no comment on the case.
The shooting victim was Christopher Baker, a member of a rival gang who was killed in a “retaliation attack” while attending a memorial for another murdered gang member, prosecutors said.
Miguel Angel Rivera Jr., an associate of Mr. Coneal in the case, was sentenced in July to 35 years to life in prison after having pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and admitting to a second strike.
Mr. Coneal would not have been successful were he to have tried for a plea bargain, Mr. Gallagher said. “He could say it, but we were never going to offer it to him,” he said. Most murder cases go to trial, he said.
Asked to comment on the jury, which deliberated for two days, Mr. Gallagher said prosecutors described the group as “a good commonsense cross-section of the community (who) seemed like they paid attention and understood what the evidence meant. They seemed to be very detail oriented.”
Prosecutors had a strong case, he said. The circumstantial evidence included a shattered window, a cut on Mr. Coneal’s hand and his blood at the scene, he said. There was evidence of motive as well, Mr. Gallagher said, including social media photos of Mr. Coneal with the firearm thought to have been used in the crime, and online written raps after the crime in which Mr. Coneal was “kind of bragging” about the crime and made reference to it.
“Like in all good strong cases, there’s a lot of good strong evidence coming from a lot of different perspectives that proves it beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said.
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