PICO RIVERA — A judge sentenced a 35-year-old Whittier woman to more than three decades in state prison Thursday for serving as the getaway driver in the 2011 shooting of a Pico Rivera woman which left her in a vegetative state, authorities said.
Michele Caldera received a prison term of 32 years to life in Norwalk Superior Court, Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Sarah Ardalani said.
She faced a maximum sentence of 40 years to life in prison following her April 14 conviction for the attempted murder of then-36-year-old Gloria Montes on May 19, 2011, officials said. A jury also convicted her of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, and found true the special allegation that the attack was gang-related.
Montes was shot in the head as she slept in her home in the 5300 block of Lindsey Avenue in Pico Rivera.
Montes testified from a wheelchair during earlier court proceedings, but has since taken a turn for the worst and is now in a vegetative state, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Brock Lunsford said.
Caldera drove triggerman Arthur Lerma, 36, of Whittier and Jose Trejo, 24, of Pico Rivera to the scene of the shooting.
“At trial, the prosecutor said Lerma targeted the victim because she told police that he was involved in a robbery,” district attorney’s officials said in a written statement.
Lerma served eight years in prison for a 2002 robbery, and had recently been paroled when the shooting occurred, investigators said.
“While Lerma was in prison, he sent the victim a letter that said he knew she snitched on him. Furthermore, Lerma said he was going to kill her when he got out of prison.”
The three defendants were partying together at a motel when Caldera borrowed a car to drive Lerma and Trejo home, prosecutors said. But the three made a stop in an alley outside Montes’ home.
“The two men approached and Lerma yelled out, “Go-Go,” which was the victim’s nickname,” according to the district attorney’s office statement. “The female victim answered and Lerma shot her in the head.”
A jury convicted Lerma in April of attempted murder, shooting at an inhabited dwelling and being a felon in possession of a firearm. The jury also found that the crime was gang-related.
Lerma received a sentence of 60 years to life in prison May 7.
Trejo, who had pleaded “no contest” to a charge of assault with a deadly weapon, was expected to receive eight years in state prison when he returned to Norwalk Superior Court for sentencing June 3. He testified during the trial for Lerma and Caldera.
Prosecutors described Lerma and Trejo as members of the Pico Nuevo street gang, and Caldera as a member of the Whittier Varrio Locos gang, which is allied with Pico Nuevo.
Montes, a self-described Pico Nuevo gang member, testified at a 2012 preliminary hearing that she had been close friends with people named Arthur Lerma and Michele Caldera, but she did not recognize them in the courtroom. She further testified that if she knew the identity of her attackers, she would not say.
She also testified she did not recall receiving the threatening letter from Lerma while he was in prison for the 2002 robbery.
Officials said that while Montes had been interviewed by detectives regarding the 2002 robbery, she never testified against Lerma.