A Santa Maria man was convicted of first-degree murder by a Santa Barbara County jury for a gang-related shooting that took the life of a Guadalupe teenager in 2021.
Santa Barbara County District Attorney John Savrnoch announced Friday that Alfredo Junior Alaniz, a 25-year-old resident of Santa Maria, was convicted by a jury of First-Degree Murder (Penal Code §187).
The jury also found true the special allegations that he committed the crime for the benefit of a criminal street gang, and that he personally used a firearm and personally discharged a firearm causing death.
In the early morning hours of May 16, 2021, Alfredo Alaniz, a Santa Maria gang member, shot Mario Merino Gonzalez 16 times, 15 times in the back, on North Lincoln Street in Santa Maria. At the time of his death, Mario Merino Gonzalez was 19 years old…