Defendant sentenced 80 years to life for role in deadly Modesto robbery

A judge on Monday sentenced a 35-year-old man to 80 years to life in prison for his role in a deadly Modesto home-invasion robbery that was botched when the perpetrators targeted the wrong victims.

Jaime Cerpa and his three co-defendants were found guilty Feb. 8, 2013, of murder, home-invasion robbery and robbery. But Cerpa was not sentenced with his co-defendants Feb. 28, 2014, because his attorney, Alonzo Gradford, did not show up.

The court fined Gradford $500 for failing to attend the sentencing hearing and appointed another attorney, Jeffrey Hirschfield, to represent Cerpa. Hirschfield reviewed Cerpa’s case to be prepared to proceed with sentencing.

Cerpa’s co-defendants – Phillip Lopez, Angel Del Villar and Hector Rocha Jr. – also were sentenced to 80 years to life in prison for the botched 2010 robbery. Authorities said the robbery attempt was carried out by a Norteño street gang regiment that was looking for drugs and cash, but apparently the drug dealers who once lived there had moved away.

On Monday afternoon, Hirschfield argued his client wasn’t at the scene of the crime and he did not engage in any violence. The defense attorney said punishing Cerpa to decades of imprisonment was “much too long.”

“He should be able to have some hope of getting out of prison someday,” Hirschfield told the judge.

Tom Brennan prosecuted the case for the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office and now works for the state Attorney General’s Office. Brennan attended Monday’s sentencing hearing and argued that Cerpa encouraged, promoted and facilitated the robbery for the benefit of the Norteño gang.

The prosecutor told the judge that the defense attorney was trying to minimize Cerpa’s involvement. Brennan argued that Cerpa was 10 years older than most of his co-conspirators. He said Cerpa played an “influential” role in planning the robbery at his Keyes home and distributing guns used in the robbery.

Stanislaus Superior Court Judge Marie Silveira told the attorneys that it’s been more than three years since the murder trial ended, and she considered some of the details of the defendant’s involvement. But she also considered the murder victim, Julio Jimenez, who was shot in the back three times as he pleaded for mercy.

The judge said Jimenez had no connection to the defendants and had simply dropped off someone near the home when the defendants pulled him out of his vehicle at gunpoint. Jimenez in Spanish prayed to be spared before he was killed. “I can’t forget about that person today,” Silveira told the attorneys.

While Jimenez and his companions were held at gunpoint in the backyard, two other gunmen searched the house and confronted the residents – a man and his 3-year-old daughter. Rocha testified that he fired three shots into the ceiling, but the residents were not hit.

The judge said Monday the family inside the home was terrorized, and the man has since returned to Mexico with his daughter. “They were regular law-abiding people who suffered because of this.”

Domingo Becerra has admitted in court that he participated in the robbery and shot Jimenez after the victim tried to escape. Becerra agreed to a plea deal with a prison sentence of 25 years to life in exchange for his testimony against the others in this robbery and two other gang-related trials.

Becerra testified that gang leaders needed cash, so they rounded up the regiment at Cerpa’s Keyes home to plan and ready themselves for the robbery. Brennan has said the Keyes home was a hide-out for leaders of Nuestra Familia, the prison gang that oversees activity of all Norteño regiments on the street. It was Becerra who offered up the home to his co-defendants in the 600 block of Thrasher Avenue in Modesto’s airport neighborhood.

Two others, Daniel Flores and Aquiles Virgen, also testified in the trial against the other defendants in exchange for plea deals. They pistol-whipped one of the victims, Becerra testified. Virgen received 15 years to life in prison, and Flores received 10 years in prison.

This story was originally published March 28, 2016 at 5:43 PM with the headline "Defendant sentenced 80 years to life for role in deadly Modesto robbery."