A man who crashed a car into an SUV in Industry, killing that vehicle’s driver, while fleeing with two accomplices after a residential break-in pleaded no contest Wednesday to first-degree murder and burglary charges and was immediately sentenced to 50 years to life in prison.
Anthony Marcel Quisenberry, 37, entered his plea after jury selection had already begun in his trial in a Pomona courtroom, according to Sarah Ardalani of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
The murder charge stemmed from a May 31, 2016, crash at the intersection of Gale Avenue and Johnson Drive that killed Rojelio Gonzalez of Downey.
Quisenberry was behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Camaro that struck Gonzalez’s compact SUV shortly after sheriff’s deputies responded to a burglary in progress call in the 15200 block of Folger Street in Hacienda Heights. Witnesses told deputies that two men were seen kicking in a neighbor’s door, while a third man waited across the street in the Camaro.
Deputies spotted the car and began chasing it, but broke off the pursuit because the Camaro was being driven into oncoming traffic, according to the sheriff’s department. Soon afterward, authorities were notified the car had crashed into the SUV.
Quisenberry, Charles Archer Allen and Michael Vincent Smyer, bailed out of the car after the crash, but were apprehended by sheriff’s deputies.
Allen, 34, and Smyer, 28, each pleaded no contest Tuesday to one count of first-degree residential burglary, and are due back in court for sentencing on May 14, Ardalani said.
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