Gang member sentenced for assault rifle slaying
By Craig Kapitan - Express-NewsA teen gang member who admitted to roaming the streets of a West Side neighborhood with a stolen assault rifle, his younger brother by his side, was ordered Friday to serve 25 years in prison for the killing of a 16-year-old stranger.
Israel Richard Medrano Jr., now 20, pleaded no contest to murder last month in exchange for prosecutors agreeing to ask state District Judge Ron Rangel for no more than 25 years. It's the same sentence co-defendant Vance Keenan received a year and a half earlier.
While Medrano did provide the M-14-style rifle used to gun down Paul Anthony Osoria outside an apartment complex on the night in August 2008, he only intended to point it in the air, defense attorney Michael Sawyer argued.
