Man sentenced to 6 years for 2012 fatal shooting of Bay Area newspaper carrier
A Solano County Superior Court judge on Monday sentenced a Suisun City man to six years in state prison for the fatal shooting a newspaper carrier more than seven years ago in Suisun City.
Daniel Jimenez Diaz, 34, appeared in Department 9 to hear Judge Carlos R. Gutierrez pronounce the sentence, part of a voluntary manslaughter plea deal attorneys struck in August, in the Justice Center in Fairfield.
Diaz will be released from custody in 2 1/2 years because he has already served 3 1/2 years in Solano County Jail.
Charged with gunning down 40-year-old Gadiel Nunez in Suisun City’s Cackling Drive area the night of March 21, 2012, Diaz agreed to plead guilty to the lesser charge and accepted the sentencing offer during an Aug. 2 court appearance. He had been scheduled for a jury trial on Aug. 7, and, thus, avoided the possibility of a first-degree murder conviction, which carries a sentence of 25 years to life.
By pleading no contest to voluntary manslaughter, the killing of another person during a sudden quarrel or in the heat of passion, Diaz also faced the possibility of 11 years in state prison, the maximum term, or as few as three years, the minimum, under state law. The judge and the attorneys in the case settled on the middle term.
Diaz was represented by Gregory Clark, a Vacaville-based criminal defense attorney.
Police records indicated Nunez reportedly was delivering newspapers in the passenger seat of a vehicle with his girlfriend at the time he was struck by gunfire. He died of his wounds the next day at an area hospital. Police speculate that Nunez may have been an unintended target.
Witnesses told police a drive-by shooting had occurred in the same area shortly before Nunez was shot.
Diaz was questioned by police following the shooting but was later released. The Solano County DA eventually filed a complaint on Sept. 17, 2015, and Diaz was arrested on the murder charge and held in Solano County Jail without bail.