Modesto teen freed after most charges dropped

Nearly every charge against a Modesto teenager in connection with a drive-by shooting in March was dropped or found not to be true in Juvenile Court this week.

Anthony Nunez, who was 17 at the time of his arrest, was released after the end of his trial Tuesday.

An officer patrolling March 5 saw someone in a car shooting toward a house on Sutter Avenue. The officer chased the car, which stopped in the 900 block of Rouse Avenue. The occupants got out and ran into a neighborhood. Police arrested Nunez and two others.

The Stanislaus County district attorney’s office on Tuesday dropped the charges against Nunez involving assault with a deadly weapon and shooting at a person after a judge ruled a confession inadmissible, said Assistant District Attorney Carol Shipley.

The judge found three other charges against Nunez to be not true: discharging a firearm in a grossly negligent matter, evading arrest and possession of a concealed weapon. A fifth charge of resisting arrest was found to be true, Shipley said.