A Gonzales man sentenced to 38 years, eight months in prison for multiple crimes; DA’s office
Jeanette Bent
GONZALES, Calif. (KION-TV) — The Monterey District Attorney’s office announced that on May 20, a 37-year-old Jesus Tejeda of Gonzales has been sentenced to 38 years and eight months in prison.
Jesus Tejeda
This sentencing comes after the DA’s office says that Tejeda plead no contest to voluntary manslaughter with the personal use a firearm, attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon in furtherance of a gang, which arose from three separate incidents in 2021, 2022 and 2023, respectively.
They say that on December 13, 2021, Christopher Connor was shot in the side of his head while driving his vehicle at the intersection of Nacional Court and Clark Street in Salinas.
According to the DA’s office, the vehicle then crashed into a wall of an apartment complex at that intersection, the shooter leaving the passenger seat of that vehicle and getting into a different vehicle that was following them.
They said that after months of investigation, Tejeda was identified as the shooter with no motive for the shooting.
“On January 5, 2022, before he was identified in the fatal shooting, Tejeda was driving a stolen vehicle near a farm in Gonzales,” according to the DA’s office. “Another person, the attempted murder victim, was in the vehicle with Tejeda. In front of numerous eyewitnesses, Tejeda and the victim exited the vehicle, and Tejeda began to assault him, causing the victim to fall to the ground.”
The DA’s office says that Tejeda proceeded to grab a 55-pound filled cinderblock and threw it at the victim’s head, knocking him unconscious.
After fleeing the scene, the DA’s office says that Tejeda was apprehended by law enforcement after leading them on a dangerous, high-speed chase.
They say that the victim suffered “great bodily injury” but remained uncooperative with law enforcement and refused to provide any statement about what happened or why.
Then, on March 9, 2023, while in custody pending prosecution for the previous offenses, the DA’s office says that Tejeda and multiple other Norteño criminal street gang members in the Monterey County Jail coordinated with each other to stab another inmate in their jail pod.
“Tejeda and other co-conspirators repeatedly stabbed the inmate, inflicting great bodily on the victim, in furtherance of a criminal street gang,” according to the DA’s office.