By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com
A Sacramento jury today convicted two members of a North Highlands street gang of first-degree murder in the shooting death of a 2008 Halloween Night party host.
Gunman Elijah Rasean Fields, 20, and fellow Monk Mobb gang member Corey Andre Carmicle, 24, also were convicted of three additional counts of attempted murder in the Nov. 1, 2008, shooting that killed Patrick Razaghzadeh, 24.
"Relief," said Trish O'Connor, the mother of the murder victim, after the verdict was announced. "I feel like there was justice and resolution. There is no closure. There is never going to be closure. But there is justice."
Superior Court Judge Greta Curtis Fall scheduled the sentencing for Fields and Carmicle for April 15.
The two were convicted of carrying out the killing for the benefit of their gang. Authorities had said the Monk Mobb was responsible for as many as four murders in 18 months, concluding with the shooting death of Razaghzadeh.
According to testimony at trial, the two defendants and as many as six of their friends wound up at Razaghzadeh's party at his house on Rogue River Drive in the La Riviera-Larchmont Park area through a fellow Monk Mobb member who was the cousin of an invited guest.
At the party, the Monk Mobb group was accused of throwing up gang hand signs, trying to sell the party drug Ecstasy, stealing a camera, fondling women and responding rudely to a partygoer's offer to them to take a drink off his bottle of cognac, witnesses said.
Razaghzadeh told the group to leave, but later apologized for it, only to draw an insult from Fields, witnesses said.
Razaghzadeh then rushed towards Fields, slipped, and was shot by the gunman when he getting up.
Four other party guests also were struck by bullets from Fields' 9-millimeter handgun.
Carmicle was prosecuted on an aiding and abetting theory for bringing the gun on the night of the shooting.
Call The Bee's Andy Furillo, (916) 321-1141.
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