Bee reporters answer questions about area crime news, trends and other issues.
QUESTION: On March 26, 2006, a young man 18 years of age was shot 10 times by five different caliber weapons, witnessed by several individuals that were there attending the house party. Was anyone arrested?
Submitted by: Clever, Sacramento
ANSWER: Three people were tried and one was found guilty of murder in the March 26, 2006 shooting death of Hector Manuel Barrera, 25, at a a birthday party at his Southside Park home on U Street.
According to stories in The Bee, the party attracted gang members from various Norteno subsets, and 20 to 40 people were outside the apartment where the party was held when the fight began. Verbal exchanges among the gang members led to fistfights, then to shooting.
Edwin Arthur Stevenson was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 60 years to life in state prison.
A Sacramento County jury acquitted two other men, Panfilo Torres and Kenneth Anderson, of the murder charges. Torres, however, was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon in the case and sentenced to 14 years in prison.
The jury could not reach a verdict on three gun-related charges against Anderson. The prosecutor considered refiling the gun charges, but Anderson pleaded guilty to a felony gun charge and was sentenced to the time that he had already served in county jail while awaiting trial on the murder charge.
Stevenson, now 23, is in California State Prison in Corcoran. Torres, 26, is at an California out-of-state correctional facility in Arizona.
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