P. v. Tapia
Appellant/defendant Ramon Lopez Tapia sold drugs in Wasco. Augustine Villagomez and his girlfriend, Cecilia Saldana, purchased methamphetamine from him, but they were upset because they received a smaller quantity than they had paid for. A few days after the sale, Villagomez and defendant confronted each other in an alley and fired shots at each other. Defendant used a nine-millimeter handgun, and he was with a man who had a shotgun. No one was hurt. A few days after that shooting, defendant’s vehicle followed Saul Arrellano’s vehicle through Wasco; Arrellano was driving and Villagomez was in the front passenger seat. Arrellano had not been involved in the previous drug dispute. There were multiple gunshots fired from defendant’s vehicle into Arrellano’s car from two different weapons: a nine-millimeter handgun and a shotgun. Villagomez was killed from shots fired from the handgun, and Arrellano was wounded by shotgun pellets. After the homicide, defendant told a friend that, “ ‘[I]t’s done, I shot his head out,’ †and that Arrellano had not been the target.
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