(L.A.) Juan Escalante, 27, Died on a Street

Case Number: 2008-05433

Los Angeles County is reporting the death of a 27-year-old Hispanic male that occurred on a street.

The coroner’s office has identified the man as Juan Escalante.

Manner of Death: Homicide

Cause of Death: Multiple Gunshot Wounds

RIP JUAN ABEL ESCALANTE (September 4, 1980 – August 2, 2008)

Formal pronouncement of death was made on Saturday at 5:44 a.m.

The decedent was an off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who was gunned down while leaving his parents’ home in the 3400 block of Thorpe Avenue in Cypress Park. He was shot four times at close range.

Investigators initially suspected that Escalante’s work guarding dangerous inmates — including members of the Mexican Mafia prison gang — was connected to his death, but authorities eventually determined that the shooter had in fact mistaken him for a member of a rival gang.

The gunman, Carlos Javier “Stoney” Velasquez, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty in October 2012 to first-degree murder. He also admitted a special circumstance allegation that the murder was carried out to further the activities of a criminal street gang and to being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Co-defendant Jose Renteria was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced in March 2013 to life in prison without parole for supplying Velasquez with the handgun used in the killing.