Pacifica man sentenced for role in 2022 Solano County murder
A co-defendant charged in an August 2022 shooting in Vacaville that killed one man and wounded another was sentenced Monday afternoon in Solano County Superior Court to a four years in prison.
However, with credit for time served in the Stanton Correctional Facility in Fairfield, Jeremy Dante Love Fisher, 29, of Pacifica, was released from custody, but Judge D. Scott Daniels ordered him to report to and register with a parole officer within 48 hours.
Held in Department 12 in the Justice Center in Fairfield, the sentencing hearing came in the wake of Fisher’s June 27 no-contest plea to attempted robbery and use of a deadly weapon. At the time, Judge Wendy Getty found him guilty and, on request of Deputy District Attorney Courtney Anderson, who led the prosecution, dismissed a first-degree murder charge against him.
The plea and waiver form, signed by defense attorney Thomas Maas, indicated Fisher could possibly receive a maximum prison term of four years, which Daniels said would be the high term and imposed it.
Citing other felony charges in a separate case against Fisher, charges of assault with a deadly weapon with force and possible great bodily injury against a spouse or cohabitant, to which Fisher also pleaded no contest on June 27, Daniels sentenced him to three years, to be served concurrently.
Fisher and co-defendant Damien Maurice Jones Jr., 24, were charged in the Aug. 12 fatal shooting of Cristian Medina, 25, and the wounding and attempted murder of another man, identified in court documents only by the initials J.L. Vacaville police investigators say the shootings occurred during an armed robbery.
During the hearing, a relative of Medina’s offered a victim-impact statement, describing Cristian as a “sweet, loving young man … a family man” and “the baby of our family.”
As she spoke, Fisher, shackled at the waist and ankles, wearing a striped jail jumpsuit, a tattoo visible behind his left ear, stared straight ahead and displayed outward emotions.
Medina’s mother, the relative said, continues to grieve, and family gatherings are no longer the same without Cristian’s “presence,” adding that his death “constantly reminds that life is fragile.”
While Fisher’s case has ended, Jones’ will go forward. He is represented by defense attorney Cate Beekman, and Anderson will lead the prosecution, with Vacaville police Detective Jesse Outly serving as lead investigator.
After the end of the oral arguments following a June preliminary hearing, Judge Getty ruled there was enough evidence to hold Jones for trial and set arraignment for 8:30 a.m. Aug. 25 in Department 12.
During an earlier proceeding in the case, two defense attorneys at the time made efforts to weaken the prosecution’s case, bearing down on what occasionally seemed contradictory testimony by two witnesses who lived in a second-story Markham Avenue apartment that overlooked a parking area where the shooting occurred.
Ma del Rosario Reyes, who previously testified in mid-December, on Day 1 of the hearing, returned for additional cross-examination by Maas.
Speaking with the aid of a Spanish interpreter, she said she told police investigators the truth the day Medina died. She also said she was married to Hecter Jimenez, who lived with her in the apartment. They were on the balcony after work when a series of gunshots rang out.
Reyes testified that she and her husband did not talk about the shooting the day it occurred but did discuss it occasionally later.
Showing her the diagram about the shooting she gave to police, Maas, repeating that she only earlier indicated seeing one person, asked her to mark the diagram with an X to show where the second person was in the parking lot. He then entered the diagram into evidence.
On her cross-examination, Beekman got Reyes to testify that she saw the shooter but did not remember seeing him “pull a gun.”
During the afternoon session, Anderson recalled Jimenez to the witness stand. He again testified, as he did in mid-December, that he was on his balcony when the shots rang out, then saw “two suspects running” and chasing a man named Julio.
Jimenez said he rushed downstairs afterward to Julio’s apartment but did not see the suspects but heard a car’s tires screeching.
While on the balcony, he saw Cristian and Julio standing in the parking lot and hearing “three sets” of gunshots. He said he went to Julio’s apartment, saw a “trail of blood” near the doorway, and, once inside the apartment, saw Julio’s forearm “wrapped up in a towel.”
Jimenez testified that he saw only one suspect with a firearm and both wore hoodies, information he gave to police.
In her cross-examination, Beekman, referring to a police report, said Jimenez told officers he heard two sets of shots, but Jimenez, noting the actions occurred rapidly and more than two years ago, said it was the third set when he saw “the suspects and Julio running.”
Court records show that around 3:30 p.m. Aug. 12, Vacaville police officers responded to a report of a shooting in the 500 block of Markham Avenue. Afterward, two victims, Medina and a second man, were taken to an area hospital, where Medina died of his wounds. The other victim made a full recovery, police said.
Following a six-month investigation, detectives in February 2023 served multiple residential search warrants in Vacaville, Fairfield, American Canyon and Pacifica.
Jones, who was arrested at a Kent Way residence in Vacaville, is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree attempted murder, attempted robbery, being a felon in possession of a firearm, possessing ammunition, and “large-capacity magazine activity,” all felonies, according to the criminal complaint.
Fisher, who was arrested at a Brown Street residence in Vacaville, also was charged with first-degree murder at the time, and, on Feb. 20, was arrested in connection with unrelated domestic violence and vandalism charges.