San Francisco man sentenced to 100 years to life for murder

SALINAS, Calif. - A San Francisco resident has been sentenced to over 100 years to life in prison after he was convicted of murdering a Salinas resident and trying to kill another person last year, Monterey County prosecutors said.

Anthony Michael Jacinto, 36, was sentenced Thursday to 75 years to life in prison for the June 2023 murder of Salinas resident Ismael "Angel" Ledesma, the Monterey County District Attorney's Office said in a statement.

Jacinto also received an additional and consecutive term of 28 years and four months for the attempted murder of Kristy Casanova, which happened on the same day as the murder of Ledesma, and for being a felon in possession of a firearm. According to prosecutors, Jacinto was found guilty by a jury of these crimes after a two-week trial. 

Court evidence showed that at about 12:30 a.m. on June 26, 2023, Jacinto went to Ledesma's home along the train tracks near the Salinas Police Department. Jacinto fired eight rounds from an untraceable semi-automatic pistol, hitting Ledesma in the torso. The defendant then fled the scene. 

Authorities said Ledesma died at Natividad Medical Center about an hour after the shooting. Jacinto was identified as the shooter through forensic evidence, including recovered DNA from the murder weapon, fired cartridge casings, surveillance video, and his cellphone records. Evidence supported the conclusion that this was a pre-planned execution, prosecutors said.

At 7 p.m. that same day, Jacinto went to the house of Casanova, his girlfriend's aunt, also in Salinas. During a dinner they provided him, he picked up a kitchen knife and stabbed Casanova in the abdomen. He held the knife in her abdomen for 20 seconds and then fled the scene. 

Casanova was near death but then was revived at the Natividad Medical Center after undergoing surgery, authorities said.

Besides his murder and attempted murder convictions, prosecutors said a jury also found true enhancements that Jacinto caused great bodily injury and used a deadly or dangerous weapon in the commission of the offenses.

The defendant's sentence was also doubled for a prior strike conviction, an armed robbery in Nevada, according to the District Attorney's Office.