From Andy Furillo
A Sacramento jury today convicted two suspected gang members of second-degree murder in the drive-by shooting death of an innocent bystander on Sacramento's north side nearly four years ago.
Dontae Sultan Stirgus, 22, and Tommie Hall, 23, will face sentences of 21 years to life in prison at their scheduled Dec. 7 sentencing in Sacramento Superior Court.
They were accused of gunning down Donikos Kantrell Jones, 23, as he stood in the front yard of his cousin's house in the 1300 block of Longshore Court on Dec. 23, 2005. Jurors also found a special circumstance allegation to be true that they were involved in the drive-by shooting with the intent to inflict great bodily injury on their victim.
A plumber who had hoped to become a firefighter, Jones had just come back from buying his wife a Christmas present when he was shot and killed.
"He just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time," Deputy District Attorney Leslie Monahan said.
Prosecutors said Stirgus had been involved in an argument on the street a little while before the 8:57 p.m. killing, which provoked one of his antagonists to fire a gun into the air. Stirgus then promised to return, according to a police summary of the case, with one witness saying that he said, "We'll be back, and it's curtains for anyone who is outside."
Sturgis left, then returned in another car with Hall, as well as a third passenger, prosecutors charged. Monahan said investigators were never able to determine who it was that fired the gun that killed Jones.
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