GONZALES — On May 20, Jesus Tejeda, 37, of Gonzales, was sentenced to 38 years and eight months in prison after pleading no contest to voluntary manslaughter with the personal use a firearm, attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon in furtherance of a gang, which arose from three separate incidents in 2021, 2022 and 2023, respectively.
On Dec. 13, 2021, Christopher Connor was shot in the side of his head while driving his vehicle at the intersection of Nacional Court and Clark Street in Salinas. The vehicle then crashed into a wall of the apartment complex at the intersection. The shooter left the passenger seat of the vehicle, got into a vehicle that was following them and fled the scene. After months of investigation, Tejeda was identified as the shooter, but no motive for the shooting was ever revealed.
On Jan. 5, 2022, before he was identified in the fatal shooting, Tejeda was driving a stolen vehicle near a farm in Gonzales. Another person, the attempted murder victim, was in the vehicle with Tejeda. In front of numerous eyewitnesses, Tejeda and the victim exited the vehicle, and Tejeda began to assault him, causing the victim to fall to the ground. Tejeda then grabbed a 55-pound filled cinderblock and threw it at the victim’s head, knocking him unconscious.
“Tejeda then fled the scene in the vehicle and was apprehended by law enforcement after leading them on a dangerous, high-speed chase,” according to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office. “The victim suffered great bodily injury, but he was uncooperative with law enforcement and refused to provide any statement as to what happened or why it happened.”
On March 9, 2023, while in custody pending prosecution for the above offenses, Tejeda and multiple other Norteño criminal street gang members in the Monterey County Jail coordinated with each other to stab another inmate in their jail pod.
“Tejeda and other co-conspirators repeatedly stabbed the inmate, inflicting great bodily (harm) on the victim, in furtherance of a criminal street gang,” the DA’s Office stated.
Tejeda was sentenced by Judge Mark E. Hood.
