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Crime & Safety

Probation for Assault on Witness

Retribution for having reported a severe beating by gang members in March.

Five gang members, including two men and three youths, have been placed on three years’ probation for a savage attack on a witness with sticks, bricks and a pellet gun.

Carlos Manuel Diaz and Jesse Salgado, both 18, faced charges of assault with a deadly weapon, damage to property and using force or violence to prevent a witness from testifying, and gang enhancements in the April 15 assault.

They entered pleas of no contest yesterday in a pretrial conference in San Mateo County Superior Court, as did Alvaro Davila, 17, Rudy Perez, now 18, and Jorge Prieto Quevado, 16.

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Acting Criminal Presiding Judge Robert Foiles gave each a sentence of 300 days in county jail with credit for the same amount of time earned while in custody in lieu of $250,000 bail.

The youths could have been tried as adults, as allowed by Proposition 21. The 2000 California measure was intended to put more juvenile suspects in adult courts and penal institutions, withhold some confidentiality rights and increase punishment against gang-related crimes.

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The victim was a Sureno gang member who prosecutors say had suffered a fractured eye orbit in a severe March 4 gang beating. He reported the crime to San Mateo Police, who arrested two of the Westside San Mateo Norteno gang members.

According to prosecution notes, the victim had parked his car when a Buick containing five or six occupants pulled up alongside him, screaming “snitch.” He drove to a nearby apartment complex on North Claremont Street, where the Buick and a second vehicle quickly followed. Some 12 to 15 men, including Diaz and Salgado, poured from the cars, chasing the man while shouting “Westside Norteno” and hurling bricks. One attacker shot at him three times with a pellet gun and all fled.

Police found the suspects, whom they say resisted arrest.

The victim cooperated with police and identified his attackers.

The defendant must refrain from affiliating with gangs or gang members or possessing weapons or ammunition, and must abstain from alcohol and drug use, and must submit to genetic marker testing.

Foiles ordered them back to court for a restitution conference Jan. 12.

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