Shooter gets life without parole

When Joshua Blount shot five men in Costa Mesa two years ago, he hurt two families: a victim’s family, and his own, who still believes he’s innocent, an Orange County judge said at his sentencing Friday.

“There are few things that are more cowardly than shooting a man in the back. And in this case, five men were shot in the back over an insult. Mr. Blount, I don’t know what to say to you,” Judge Daniel McNerney said as Blount, donning shackles, an orange jail jumpsuit and a newly grown mustache, awaited his sentence.

McNerney continued: “I wish you were a braver man. I wish you were braver in that situation in the alley that night. I wish you were braver, that you had more courage in being honest with your own family. This has broken your mother’s heart. And it will continue to break her heart because now she has to think about you sitting in prison believing you were not responsible for this.”

Blount, 24, of Compton, was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole Friday for fatally shooting 23-year-old Israel Maciel of Costa Mesa and wounding four of his friends in an Aug. 2, 2006, drive-by shooting. The attack, in an alley in the 1300 block of Baker Street, came after one of Maciel’s friends insulted one of Blount’s female friends.

According to prosecutors, a day earlier, some of Maciel’s friends got in a fight with some of Blount’s friends who live in the same Costa Mesa neighborhood. The tension continued through the next day, when a girl mistakenly approached Maciel’s friends in the Baker Street alley looking for Blount. They spit on her and insulted Blount, prosecutors said.

When Blount got word of this, he confronted the group and was rebuked. Hours later, he returned behind the wheel of a car and with a gun. Two other friends were riding with him. Without saying a word, Blount rolled down the driver’s side window and unleashed 10 rounds from a 9 mm Glock handgun at the men, which included Maciel. While four others were wounded, only Maciel’s wounds proved fatal.

Friday, Maciel’s family got to tell Blount how he affected their family and plead with the judge for the maximum life sentence.

“It’s been really hard for me,” Mike Herrera, Maciel’s 17-year-old brother, told the judge. “Even though I know he’s not with me or any of my family, I know he’ll be proud of me and all I’ve succeeded [in].”