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Two gang members were sentenced Monday to 80 years to life in prison for the killing of a 51-year-old Pomona man in 2015 in payback for an earlier gang shooting.
Jurors convicted Donnell Parker, 24, and Terry Wayne Smith, 32, of one count each of murder and possession of a firearm by a felon. The jury panel also found true gun and gang allegations for both men.
Parker and Smith requested that their sentences be handed down immediately after the verdict was read.
The victim, Gregory Montgomery, was gunned down about 10:30 a.m. on May 8, 2015, as he stood in the front yard of his home in the 200 block of Fanshaw Avenue. Witnesses said two men walked up and opened fire.
Montgomery died at the scene.
Deputy District Attorney David Barkhurst of the Hardcore Gang Division said Montgomery’s killing was “payback” for the drive-by shooting of a gang member less than a mile away on March 1, 2015.
Montgomery had once been a member of a rival gang, according to Barkhurst.
“He was targeted because of that membership,” the prosecutor said, before adding that there was no evidence that Montgomery had anything to do with the other man’s death.
“He was a victim of circumstances,” Barkhurst said.
–City News Service
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