Two participants in the 2011 Cinnamon Creek shooting in Redlands have lost their bid to be resentenced under a new California law.
John Salazar had driven Adrian Powers and Anthony Legaspi to Redlands’ Cinnamon Creek Apartments on Jan. 5, 2011. Jose Lara had provided Legaspi with a gun. Legaspi shot at five high schoolers, killing two and injuring two others.
Both Lara and Salazar were convicted of murder, even though neither of them fired the shots.
They are both represented by court appointed counsel, which typically do not comment on cases.
The two petitioned to be resentenced under California’s Penal Code Section 1172.6. The new law changed a theory of murder. Before it was passed in 2020, people could be convicted of murder if they committed a crime that resulted in murder, even if they did not directly kill the victim themselves. Murder convicts have been petitioning for relief under the law since. At least 72 appellate cases in the Fourth District Court of Appeal, which reviews cases from San Bernardino and Riverside superior courts, have reviewed Section 1172.6 petitions since November.
San Bernardino Superior Judge Annemarie Pace denied Lara’s and Salazar’s petitions to be resentenced May 4. She simply found that the facts of the case excluded them from relief, according to prosecutor Ronald Webster.
“I’m happy for the families, that this part of the phase is over, but it’s still not over for me,” Webster said. He will still be going to court for the case. There are still hearings to reconsider enhancements, Webster said.
Gail Howard, the mother of Jordan Howard, who survived the shooting, said she appreciated the ruling.
“I was happy. We all were happy. We thought they were going to reduce the sentence last week. They didn’t,” Howard said.
Howard said that they boys were on their way to the movies when Legaspi shot them on a dare.
Still, she said later, justice won’t fully be served.
“When it’s all said and done, it’s not going to change anything. Those boys still aren’t coming home,” Howard said.
