Changes in state law led to a 51-year-old man’s “exoneration” in the 1994 shooting of a 19-year-old victim in Santa Ana who died 15 years later, the defendant’s attorney said Monday.
Giovanny Edgar Sanchez was deported to Guatemala after being released from prison in 2006 for his part in the shooting of Scott Sittler, who died from his wounds in February 2009. Prosecutors worked for his extradition from Guatemala after a warrant was issued for him in 2009 following the victim’s death, and he was brought back to face a murder charge in 2021.
But on Sept. 23, charges of murder and street terrorism with sentencing enhancements for gang activity and the use of a deadly weapon were dismissed.
Changes in state law “ultimately exonerated him of both attempted murder and murder as he was not the killer and took no part in the killing of the victim,” his attorney, James Crawford, said.
State law was changed to require prosecutors to prove that a defendant who was not the actual killer had a significant role in the killing and was aware it could happen.
Sanchez’s brother, Erwin Johnny Sanchez, 49, was sentenced in January 2012 to 29 years to life for Sittler’s killing. Erwin Sanchez was denied parole in March and is not eligible for another hearing until March 2027.
Erwin Sanchez pleaded guilty in 1996 to attempted murder for the shooting of Sittler, whose spinal cord was severed, leaving him a quadriplegic for the rest of his life.
Daniel Paul Cruz, 45, pleaded guilty in April 2013 to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Cruz originally pleaded guilty to the shooting in 1996 and was sentenced to nine years in prison, but landed back in prison to serve a 23-year sentence in June 2003 for armed robbery.
Sittler’s relationship with Giovanny Sanchez’s longtime girlfriend, Stephanie Martinez, fueled a confrontation that led to the shooting, Erwin Sanchez’s attorney, Robert Hartmann, said in 2012 at his client’s sentencing. Giovanny Sanchez and Martinez had three sons together.
When Martinez left Giovanny Sanchez, taking their three sons with her, he suspected Sittler had something to do with it, Hartmann said. The three defendants and Sittler were in rival gangs, former Deputy District Attorney Mark Geller said in 2012.
The Sanchez brothers and Cruz ran into Sittler at Madison Avenue and Minnie Street in Santa Ana and confronted him, Hartmann said.
Sittler laughed at and taunted Giovanny Sanchez, provoking the shooting, Hartmann said.