Justice for Sammantha

More than two years after 16-year-old Sammantha Salas of Monrovia was gunned down in front of her father's apartment building, two reputed gang members were sentenced to life in prison in connection with her murder. As you'll read in the FULL STORY, the killers remain remorseless, denying at their sentencing that they were responsible for the killing:

Excerpt from story by Staff Writer Adolfo Flores:

BURBANK - Two cousins, reputed members of a Crips clique that waged tit-for-tat shootings with a rival Latino gang in Monrovia in 2008, will spend the rest of their lives behind bars for an ambush shooting that mistakenly killed a 16-year-old girl, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Nickelis and Rayshawn Blackwell received life in prison without the possibility of parole during an emotional sentencing hearing at which Sammantha Salas' mother, Jeanette Chavez, addressed the court with tears in her eyes.
"'I don't want to die' were my daughter's, Sammantha's, last words before she died in her father's arms," Chavez said. "Nickelis and Rayshawn, you without remorse violently destroyed the lives of innocent law-abiding citizens ...
You messed with the wrong mother, the wrong family for that matter."
In July, the two were found guilty for their roles in the Jan. 26, 2008, shooting of Salas as she walked with two friends to a neighborhood market on Peck Road in unincorporated Monrovia. One of the friends, a 16-year-old girl, was critically injured but has since recovered.