A judge ruled Wednesday that there is enough evidence for a Long Beach man to stand trial on accusations he murdered a 17-year-old girl and two weeks later opened fire on a car containing four teenagers.
Briana Soto, a Poly High School student, was walking home from her job at McDonald’s on the evening of March 26 when she was fatally shot within a few steps of her Cambodia Town home.
Soto’s boyfriend, Ricardo Choza, testified Wednesday at a preliminary hearing that he was on the phone with her when the shooting occurred.
Choza said he suddenly “heard her scream, then a pop noise.” A few moments later, a bystander picked up the phone and said Soto was bleeding on the ground.
Nearby security camera video showed the suspected shooter wearing dark clothes with a hoodie concealing his face. Prosecutors allege the man was 34-year-old Troy Lamar Fox, who is now charged with murder and four counts of attempted murder.
With about twenty of Soto’s family and friends in attendance, Long Beach Superior Court Judge Debra A. Cole ruled that Fox would be held to answer for charges related to Soto’s killing and the separate shooting two weeks later.