Life terms for Sacramento men who ambushed teen brothers in 2017 Fruitridge slayings

The Sacramento men who gunned down two teenage brothers in broad daylight two years ago outside a Fruitridge Road strip mall will die in prison for their crimes.

Richard Jefferson Saterfield, 23, and Hieu Hoang, 22, were sentenced to life in prison without parole Friday in Sacramento Superior Court in the May 2017 murders of 19-year-old Daniel Robert Murti and Sergio Murti, 15, in the strip mall’s parking lot a short walk from the brothers’ Nina Way home.

Sacramento jurors sat through a 10-day trial before returning guilty verdicts in less than a day in May. The life terms handed down by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Helena Gweon – one for each of the felled brothers – included decades-long enhancements for using a gun and killing multiple victims.

Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office in January 2018 decided against seeking the death penalty for the two – a decision that angered the brothers’ family.

“They shot them to kill them. It’s not fair. Sergio was a baby himself,” Elena Maldonado, the teen brothers’ cousin, said outside court after the January 2018 announcement.

Hoang and Saterfield ambushed the Murti brothers in the 5200 block of Fruitridge Road, sprinting from a nearby market and cafe and firing their .40-caliber handguns before climbing into a sport-utility vehicle and speeding away.

The gunmen were arrested days apart – Hoang on May 12, 2017, a day after the slayings; Saterfield on May 13, 2017, after surrendering to authorities.

The long march to trial was marked by large, emotional throngs of the Murtis’ family and friends, who showed en masse for the two years of criminal proceedings that ended with Hoang’s and Saterfield’s sentences Friday in Sacramento.