Desert Aire drive-by shooter sentenced to 4 months

DESERT AIRE — A 22-year-old suspected member of the Norteño gang has been sentenced to four months in jail for shooting at a rival gang member and his girlfriend in an occupied vehicle in Desert Aire last May.

Antonio Martinez Carranza pleaded guilty to felony criminal mischief while armed with a firearm. He was originally charged with first-degree abandoning a dependent, first-degree assault with a deadly weapon and drive-by shooting.

Carranza and another male were driving in the Desert Aire area when they spotted a vehicle driven by Moses Prieto, a self-professed member of rival gang the Sureños, with whom Carranza specifically had a “beef,” according to court records.

Carranza fired at least one shot out of a moving car at the victim’s vehicle, which contained both the rival gang member and his girlfriend, court records show. That bullet hit the driver’s side rear door, at which point both parties fled the scene.

It was not the first altercation between Carranza and Prieto, and Prieto later confessed to police that he retaliated for the drive-by by coming to Carranza’s home and shooting his truck several times, according to police records.

Carranza was restrained during court proceedings due to what prosecutors called a history of violent behavior, and had been placed on $500,000 bond while the case wound its way through the system.

He had an extensive criminal history prior to the drive-by, including several counts of residential burglary, possession of a stolen vehicle and second degree assault. Most of those offenses occurred while Carranza, who dropped out of high school before completing his freshman year, was still a juvenile.

Emry Dinman can be reached via email at edinman@columbiabasinherald.com.