Man gets two years in county jail for being accessory to fatal shooting

One of three men arrested in connection with a shooting outside a Santa Rosa bar in December that killed one man and injured another was sentenced to two years in Sonoma County Jail Monday morning.

Daniel Calderon-Escobido, 23, of Petaluma, pleaded no contest in December to being an accessory to the shooting. He will serve his sentence in county jail under a state prison realignment plan that allows some defendants convicted of less serious crimes to serve their terms in local jails.

Escobido's two co-defendants, Jose Campos Mendoza, 17, and Alfonso Ramirez-Mendoza, 18, of Santa Rosa, are scheduled to enter pleas on March 1 to murder and attempted murder charges.

The shooting occurred shortly before 2 a.m. on Dec. 3 in the parking lot of the El Puente Cantina at 1709 Santa Rosa Ave. Christopher Medina Ochoa, 23, was killed in the shooting and Jullian Loeza Jr., 21, was wounded.

Escobido ran from the scene with a gun after the shooting but is not believed to have fired the shots. Mendoza, the alleged shooter, is being tried as an adult.

Escobido faced up to a three-year state prison term, but Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Dana Simonds sentenced him to the lesser term because he has no prior criminal record and because he pleaded no contest quickly.

The judge, however, said the serious nature of the crime -- and the fact that Escobido was armed and ran from the scene and was not forthcoming with Santa Rosa police -- merited a state prison term rather than probation.

Escobido was identified by a security guard at the bar, Simonds said. She said his accessory charge is one of the more egregious accessory charges she has seen.

Several of Ochoa's family members attended the brief sentencing, wearing white T-shirts bearing Ochoa's picture and the message "Rest in Peace Beto." They declined to comment afterward.