Shooter gets 57 years to life in prison for Modesto murder-arson case

Maria Camacho, at times, considered responding with the same kind of violence inflicted on her son, Guadalupe Mario Tubera. The 31-year-old man was killed by gunfire, and his body was found inside a burning west Modesto home.

Camacho says she wanted to do the same to Clinton Curtis Wilson, the man convicted of shooting her son and setting fire to the John Street home. “I choose not to be like you and take matters into my own hands,” she wrote in a letter read in court Monday by Deputy District Attorney Michael Houston.

After the letter was read, Stanislaus Superior Court Judge Scott Steffen sentenced Wilson, 38, to 57 years to life in prison for killing Tubera and starting a fire at the home. Wilson has already served more than five years of that sentence at the county jail awaiting prosecution in the murder case.

A jury last month found Wilson guilty of first-degree murder and arson causing great bodily injury. A gun enhancement doubled Wilson’s murder sentence of 25 years to life in prison. Steffen sentenced Wilson to an additional seven years for the arson charge.

On May 4, 2011, Tubera’s charred body was found inside the home in the 1700 block of John Street. Tubera had a gunshot wound on the top of his head and another on the side of his neck.

The John Street house was vacant and being remodeled. Wilson was working there and living in a trailer parked next to the home.

The prosecutor told the jury Tubera was shot execution-style for stealing marijuana from Wilson. Houston argued Monday that Wilson responded with deadly violence because he was angry over the theft, and he started the fire to cover up the crime. Houston asked the judge to sentence Wilson to nine years in prison for the arson charge.

The defendant told investigators that after the fatal shooting, he panicked and tried to start a fire inside the house. He left the house and went to a motel on Kansas Avenue, where he told friend Nicole Marie Pappas about the shooting.

Pappas testified that Wilson wasn’t sure the fire started, so she volunteered to go back and check. When she arrived at the John Street home, she found no flames or smoke. She said on the witness stand she lit a paper grocery bag with a lighter, tossed the burning bag on a pile of debris inside the house and returned to the motel room.

Pappas, 34, agreed to testify in Wilson’s trial in exchange for a conviction on charges of arson of a structure and being an accessory in Tubera’s murder. Prosecutors agreed to drop a murder charge against her.

Bernie Fairfield, Wilson’s attorney, told the jury that Pappas had a motive to lie on the witness stand because she was receiving leniency. Fairfield argued the fire that Pappas started was the one to burn Tubera’s body and damage the home.

On Monday, Fairfield argued that the arson sentence should be served concurrently. He told the judge his client will be 83 years old before he is eligible for parole.

At trial, the defense attorney told the jurors that his client fired the gun in self-defense, because Tubera was wielding an unplugged electric chain saw during the confrontation.

The prosecutor argued that Wilson’s claim of self-defense was simply a lie he told a detective. Houston said Wilson never mentioned self-defense or the chain saw when he met with friends at the Modesto motel.

Also on Monday, Wilson pleaded no contest to robbery for driving a getaway vehicle in a July 2010 holdup at a Ceres liquor store. The prosecutor said in court that Kevin Lee Walker committed the armed robbery at the Liquor King in the 3200 block of Mitchell Road.

Steffen sentenced Wilson to three years in prison for the robbery charges, but that will be served concurrently with the sentence in the murder case.

This story was originally published August 15, 2016 at 6:52 PM with the headline "Shooter gets 57 years to life in prison for Modesto murder-arson case."