Gang member expected to receive life-in-prison sentence Wednesday

EL CAJON (KUSI) – A gang member was scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday at the courthouse in El Cajon for the fatal shooting of a man
in Chula Vista in 2002 and the murder of another man three years later.   

Jose Luis Valdez, 32, was convicted in July of second-degree murder in the shooting of Joseph Medina, 22, which happened in December 2002. Also for the first-degree murder shooting of Daniel Rodriguez in Alpine from October 2005.

Valdez might have had a three murder charge, but jurors deadlocked 11-1 in the July 6, 2003, shooting of Francisco Chaires in National City.   

Deputy District Attorney David Grapilon said Valdez was the gunman in all three killings and the prosecution’s main witness, Daniel Mascareno, was the driver in each of the crimes.   

Mascareno signed on as a cooperating witness in 2007 and participated in a number of undercover recorded operations with law enforcement targeting Valdez and other defendants, Grapilon said.   

Valdez, John Reyna and Rashad Lansing were arrested in September 2013 in connection with the Rodriguez murder. Reyna and Lansing subsequently pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

Valdez faces a sentence of life in prison without parole due to the multiple murders.