Vista, California: Jury Convicts Jose Ulices Luna of Murder in Shooting That Killed Antonio Calderon Mendiola, 19

A Vista jury has convicted Jose Ulices Luna, 22, of second-degree murder for a 2024 shooting that killed a 19-year-old man and wounded three teenagers as they arrived at a birthday party, City News Service reported.

The jury found Luna guilty on Thursday, October 22, of second-degree murder, attempted murder and other charges after almost two weeks of testimony. He was also convicted of carjacking, robbery and evading arrest in connection with a separate incident about a month after the shooting.

The 2024 shooting

Sheriff's deputies received a 911 call from a cellphone near Civic Center Drive in Vista at about 2:30 a.m. on July 20, 2024, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department said in its homicide update on the case. Four young men arrived at Palomar Hospital in Escondido with gunshot wounds, and one of them, Antonio Junior Calderon Mendiola, 19, died of his injuries.

Prosecutors wrote in a trial brief that the shooting was gang-motivated. The victims were traveling together to a birthday party at a Newport Terrace apartment, and when they pulled up to the home, Luna approached the vehicle and opened fire on the people inside, according to the trial brief. Mendiola was sitting in the front passenger seat, closest to the shooter. The three wounded victims were 16, 17 and 18 years old. Their names have not been released.

The arrest and the evidence

Luna was arrested about a month after the shooting, after he robbed a group of teens in Vista, stole their vehicle and led police on a chase that ended in a crash, City News Service reported. The jury convicted him of carjacking, robbery and evading arrest for that incident as well.

After his arrest, witnesses who had seen Luna at the birthday party identified him to Mendiola's family, according to the prosecution's brief. Detectives who searched his home found an expended shell casing in a vehicle, and testing showed it had been fired from the same firearm that left expended casings at the murder scene, the brief states. The murder weapon was recovered after detectives searched a vehicle occupied by two of Luna's fellow gang members and found the gun, prosecutors wrote.

Formal charges against Luna were filed on January 14, 2025, at the Vista courthouse, the Sheriff's Department said, including murder, three counts of attempted murder and allegations that he used a firearm to cause great bodily injury.

What happens next

Luna is slated to be sentenced in February, and The Coast News reported the sentencing date as February 8. He has been held in custody since his arrest.

The Sheriff's Department homicide unit can be reached at 858-285-6330, and anonymous tips can go to Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477, the department said in its update on the case.