'You will never ever be free': Gangster 'looking to restore his credibility' gets life for shotgun murder of young father moving car to avoid parking ticket

David Guadalupe Calderon will spend the rest of his life for a gang-related murder of Edwin Herrera. (Ventura County District Attorney)

A California gang member will spend the rest of his life in prison for randomly walking up to a young father moving his vehicle to avoid a parking ticket in front of his home, asking him what gang he was from and shooting him dead.

David Guadalupe Calderon, 31, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 27 years to life for the first-degree murder of 19-year-old Edwin Herrera, Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko announced in a news release . Calderon was convicted in the case last month.

“Words can’t express how my family and I are feeling at the moment!” the victim’s sister posted on Facebook . “These past 2 weeks of details and testimony have been horrible seen this monsters face has been an emotional roller coaster, sleeping wounds have resurfaced but today we’re happy to know you will never ever be free.”

In the news release, Senior Deputy District Attorney John Barrick, the lead prosecutor, credited the Oxnard Police Department with the hard work of solving the case, which is more than a dozen years old.

“The evidence presented to the jury overwhelmingly proved that the defendant not only committed this horrendous crime but did so without remorse,” he said. “Hopefully, the defendant’s conviction and sentence will allow Edwin’s family to begin the healing process they so rightfully deserve.”

The killing happened on Feb. 29, 2012, in Oxnard, about 60 miles west of downtown Los Angeles. That day, Calderon had been “looking to restore his credibility with his gang” and he and fellow gang member Carlos Hernandez purchased a unique type of shotgun ammunition from a local gun shop for the occasion, prosecutors said.

That night, officials said the two hunted for their rivals.

“They were looking for Lemonwood gang members to kill, and when they didn’t find one, they decided to settle on any male in the area,” Barrick said, the Ventura County Star reported. “Unfortunately for the victim, they chose him.”

They spotted Herrera, who Barrick said was a law-abiding citizen without a ticket to his name, as he moved his car to avoid a parking ticket outside his home.

With Hernandez a “lookout,” Calderon pulled up to the victim, got out of his car with a sawed-off shotgun, and demanded to know which gang Herrera was from, prosecutors said. After Herrera told Calderon he was not a gang member, Calderon shot him anyway, in the neck at close range, before he and Hernandez fled.

Herrera’s family heard the shot and found him slumped over in his car. He died at a hospital.

Calderon was seen on surveillance video calmly walking into a pizza parlor and buying a pizza 25 minutes after the murder.

Days later, he sold the murder weapon to another gang member. Oxnard police found that gun while serving a search warrant at a residence on March 30, 2012.

More than three years later, on Aug. 28, 2015, Calderon, then serving five years in state prison for a robbery conviction, was charged with Herrera’s murder.

Local CW Television Network KTLA , citing court records, said a recording caught him “bragging about the killing to another inmate.”

Hernandez, his accomplice, pleaded guilty to a charge of voluntary manslaughter and is awaiting sentencing on June 18, online court records show.

The post ‘You will never ever be free’: Gangster ‘looking to restore his credibility’ gets life for shotgun murder of young father moving car to avoid parking ticket first appeared on Law & Crime .