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IE Gang Member Sentenced To Death For 2013 Murders Of 'Rivals'

MURRIETA (CBSLA) — A judge Friday sentenced a Riverside County man to death for killing three people who, in some form or another, opposed his gang.

Riverside Superior Court Judge Stephen Gallon sentenced Raymond Alex Barrera of San Jacinto to death after a jury's recommendation of capital punishment.

Barrera, 27,  was a member of San Ja, San Jacinto's oldest street gang. He was found guilty in September of a string of murders in 2013 targeting members of a rival gang, so-called "drop outs" who turned their backs on San Ja and informants or "snitches."

Barrera first shot and killed "drop out" Juan "Spooks" Perez in that back as he and a friend went to a store for beer.

His second victim was supposed police informant Jose "Flaco" Venegas, who was lured to the Soboba Indian Reservation and shot. Barrera had previously cooperated with police, court papers said.

His final victim was Ruben "Toker" Zavala, member of the gang Hemet 13, who was in a turf war with San Ja.

Barrera's girlfriend Tawpash Paillia Durnin, 24, was with him during the murders. She pleaded guilty to three counts of voluntary manslaughter and has been sentenced to 26 years in prison.

Barrera's other accomplice in the murder of Zavala, then 17-year-old Robert Anthony Hernandez, is awaiting trial in juvenile court.

In 2016, California voters passed Prop 66, a measure that limits the time for legal challenges to death sentences to five years.

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