A Whittier gang member received his sentence Friday for the fatal 2009 shooting of a father of five in Uptown Whittier, officials said.
Brandon Valdez, a 26-year-old documented member of the Whittier Varrio Locos street gang, will spend 50 years to life in state prison for the May 16, 2009, slaying of 27-year-old Daniel “Danny Boy” Quijada outside his home in the 6300 block of Milton Avenue, Norwalk Superior Court officials said.
A jury convicted Valdez in January of first-degree murder, along with the special allegation that the crime was carried out in connection with a criminal street gang, according to Los Angeles County District Attorney’s officials.
Quijada had four children, and his wife was seven months pregnant with their fifth child at the time of the shooting.
Though Quijada was a former gang member, there was no testimony presented at trial indicating he was still active with a gang, prosecutor Brock Lunsford said.
Testimony indicated Quijada was targeted by Valdez’s gang — which claims the area as its territory — for engaging in “activities” not sanctioned by the gang, Lunsford said.
Witnesses indicated that Quijada may have angered the gang by selling drugs in the area the claim as their turf, and that Quijada had a heated argument with another Whittier Varrio Locos member in the weeks leading up to the shooting.
Valdez was named in a 2008 Whittier gang injunction targeting the Whittier Varrio Locos gang.