A 37-year-old gang member was sentenced today to death for murdering five people at a Long Beach homeless encampment in 2008.
David Cruz Ponce was sentenced to death by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo.
Ponce and 31-year-old Max Eliseo Rafael were found guilty in September 2017 of five counts of murder and one count of kidnapping. The jury also found true the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders, murder during a kidnapping and murder while the defendants were active participants in a criminal street gang.
Ponce also was convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Tony Bledsoe on March 23, 2009 as well as two counts of possession of a firearm by a felon.
Ponce and Rafael fatally shot Lorenzo Villicana, Katherine Verdun, Hamid Shraifat, Frederick Neumeier and Vanessa Malaepule on Nov. 1, 2008. All five victims lived in a homeless encampment near an off ramp of the 405 Freeway in Long Beach.
Police say the gunmen found a man at the camp who owed them money and they opened fire. Then, the pair killed four other people at the camp because they witnessed the first murder.
The two defendants talked about the murders in jailhouse conversations that were recorded, the prosecutor said.
In January, Rafael was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
