Yolo jury convicts Sacramento man in shooting that killed mother and injured passenger
A Yolo County jury convicted a Sacramento man in a shooting last year in West Sacramento involving a vehicle chase and the death of a 23-year-old woman struck by gunfire that penetrated her heart.
The jury on Tuesday found Jose Tellez Flores, 20, guilty of second-degree murder in the May 6 shooting that killed Brenda Jimenez of West Sacramento, according to a news release from the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors said the jury also found Tellez Flores guilty of attempted murder of a 26-year-old man who also was struck by gunfire as a passenger in the car Jimenez was driving that night.
Investigators used traffic cameras, security camera video and GPS data to determine Tellez Flores’ whereabouts leading up to the shooting, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
That night, Tellez Flores and at least two others, including his brother, were celebrating Cinco de Mayo at a south Sacramento restaurant called Rick’s Hacienda. They were there until about 1:30 a.m. the following morning.
Tellez Flores and others got into a Chevrolet Tahoe and drove to West Sacramento, where they encountered a Chevrolet Impala driven by Jimenez at the intersection of Cummins Way and Douglas Street.
Prosecutors said security cameras showed the Tahoe pulling up alongside the Impala at a stop sign in the oncoming lane of traffic a moment before the Impala sped away from the intersection with the Tahoe chasing the car.
“Video captured multiple gunshot flashes coming from the Tahoe as it chased after the Impala,” prosecutors said in the news release. “Both vehicles continued at a high rate of speed until the Impala lost traction with the road and collided with the garage at the intersection of Cummins Way and 6th Street.”
The Tahoe crashed into a tree and a parked vehicle at a nearby home. After both vehicles crashed, the home’s doorbell camera captured the sound of a “volley” of gunshots and the image of someone firing a second “volley” into the Impala, the District Attorney’s Office said.
Security camera video from Sixth Street captured three people matching the descriptions of Tellez Flores and his brother, along with another person, leaving the area, prosecutors said.
About 2 a.m., officers responded to reports of “shots fired and sounds of vehicles speeding away,” the West Sacramento Police Department has said.
Prosecutors said the officers arrived near the intersection of Cummins Way and Sixth Street and found Jimenez in the Impala’s driver’s seat. The car had crashed into the home’s garage door. The Impala was struck by gunfire multiple times.
Medics arrived and pronounced Jimenez dead at the scene. The cause of her death was a gunshot wound that penetrated her heart, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors said the male passenger who survived the shooting suffered a gunshot wound to his back and was treated at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.
At the crime scene, officers also found the crashed Tahoe abandoned. Prosecutors said the Tahoe was associated with Tellez Flores.
Investigators determined Tellez Flores’ father gave him and his brother a ride home from an apartment complex near Madone Avenue in West Sacramento about 2:30 a.m., according to the District Attorney’s Office. Tellez Flores remained at his south Sacramento home until he was arrested later that afternoon. He remained in custody at the Yolo County Jail through the completion of his trial.
Prosecutors said forensics investigators later linked Tellez Flores to a 10 mm. Glock handgun confiscated by Sacramento Police Department officers during a traffic stop. Investigators determined the gun was one of at least three guns used in the fatal shooting.
Tellez Flores is scheduled to return March 1 to Yolo Superior Court for his sentencing hearing. Prosecutors said Tellez Flores faces a maximum sentence of 15 years to life in prison for killing Jimenez and nine years in prison for the attempted murder conviction.
In an online fundraiser created to raise money for funeral costs, Jimenez’s family remembered her “as the mother you have always been to your beautiful Baby girl” and will always be in the hearts of her family and friends.
“The way that this killing was perpetrated not only endangered the lives of those involved, but completely disregarded the safety and welfare of the entire West Sacramento Community,” District Attorney Jeff Reisig said in the news release. “The amount of trauma caused by Mr. Tellez Flores and his associates cannot truly be measured, but it is comforting to know that members of the community heard the evidence and handed down justice in this case.”
This story was originally published January 7, 2022 at 6:20 PM.
