Prosecutors: He fell off his bike and they laughed at him. He got mad and shot them.

Maurilio Vasquez fell off his bicycle while riding in Modesto’s airport neighborhood, and he became angry when Clarence “Buddy” Mason laughed at him. That’s why Vasquez killed Mason, prosecutors said.

Vasquez, 32, of Modesto has been sentenced to 28 years and four months in prison for shooting Mason, 51, and his friend, the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office announced this week in a news release. The prison sentence also was the result of a conviction for an unrelated jail stabbing.

Vasquez remained a fugitive for about four years after the shooting. He was found in Michoacán, Mexico, in 2012 and extradited back to Stanislaus County.

The shooting occurred in the early hours of April 29, 2008. Vasquez was riding his bicycle and fell off of it. Mason and his friend saw him fall and laughed. Vasquez was angered and left after threatening to return with his “Norteño homies.”

Mason was walking his dog near Kerr and Larkin avenues about 2:30 a.m., when the two men were shot. Detectives have said Vasquez rode up on the bicycle and shot the two men. Mason died, and his friend was seriously injured but survived.

On Dec. 11, Vasquez pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and assault with a gun. He also admitted to enhancements to his charges for using a gun and committing the crime for the benefit of a street gang.

Charges of murder and attempted murder against Vasquez in the shooting were dropped, according to Stanislaus Superior Court records. Several other enhancements to his charges also were dropped.

Vasquez also pleaded no contest to a charge of mayhem for the jail stabbing, prosecutors said. He also admitted to committing the assault for the benefit of a street gang. Prosecutors said Joe Ramirez, the man stabbed, lost an eye in the attack.

Authorities have said that Vasquez in April 2014 was one of three Stanislaus County Jail inmates who stabbed Ramirez, a fellow Norteño street gang member implicated in several home invasion robberies and three homicides. Ramirez was stabbed with a shank – a makeshift knife – while awaiting prosecution at the jail.

Superior Court Judge Nancy Ashley sentenced Vasquez on Jan. 24. On Friday, he remained at the Stanislaus County Jail awaiting transfer to a prison.

This story was originally published February 1, 2019 at 2:47 PM.