Lifetime Sentence for Murderers of AHS Student

YVONNE LEE
Editor in Chief
On June 18, members of the AHS Class of 2010 crossed the stage and graduated to the next phase of their lives. Sammantha Salas should have been one of them.
Two years ago, on the night of Jan. 26, 2008, while walking down Peck Road in Monrovia with two friends, Sammantha Salas was shot and killed. As a sophomore at AHS and just sixteen years old, Salas was an innocent bystander and unintended victim of a violent, gang-related crime.
It was 9:15 p.m. when two men walked up to Salas and her two friends and began to shoot, although Salas was not involved or affiliated with gangs.
The friend, though critically injured, survived the attack but is now paralyzed. Salas was pronounced dead at the hospital she was brought to. Police believe that the third member of the group was the target of the attack; however, he escaped without injury.
On Oct. 13, two members of the Duroc Crips gang, Nickelis and Rayshawn Blackwell, were sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for Salas’ murder.
According to Monrovia City’s website Michael Carter, the judge who presided over the case, told them, “you gunned down a 16-year-old you weren’t going after and had never met, you shot and killed her and paralyzed another young woman,” right before sentencing.
Even after the sentencing and emotional words from Salas’ mother, Jeannette Chavez, the pair still maintain their innocence and intend on requesting an appeal. Though justice may be served for Salas and her family, it does not take away the pain and loss they must feel.
“Nothing is going to replace her, but hopefully it brings [her family] some closure knowing that some criminals who might’ve done it again are off the streets,” said AHS Principal Brad Walsh.