A man convicted of gunning down an acquaintance in front of a City Heights home was sentenced Friday to 35 years to life in state prison.
Michael Hall, 23, was found guilty by a San Diego jury of first-degree murder for the 2023 shooting death of Cedrick Deshawn Cruz, 35.
Prosecutors say Cruz was shot more than a dozen times in front of his mother’s home. Paramedics took him to a hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.
Some of Cruz’s relatives who attended the sentencing hearing said Hall was friends with a member of the victim’s family and had recently been taken in by the Cruz family during a troubled time in his life.
Trial testimony indicated the shooting may have stemmed from a dispute over a gun Hall owned that went missing while he was staying with at the Cruz residence.
“The Cruz family opened their home to the defendant,” Deputy District Attorney Jerry Wendricks said during the hearing. “They viewed him as another son, another brother. The defendant betrayed their trust.”
Hall faced a maximum sentence of 50 years to life in state prison for the murder count, plus a gun allegation, but Superior Court Judge Francis Devaney opted to sentence Hall to 10 years in prison for the gun allegation, as well as the mandatory 25 years to life for first-degree murder.
Devaney also rejected defense requests to reduce the murder conviction to second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter.
During his trial, Hall testified that he shot Cruz in self-defense, while Wendricks called the killing a “planned execution.” The prosecutor said Cruz was running away from Hall when he was fired on and all the rounds that struck him were in his back and side.
Hall, who was 20 years old at the time of the June 27, 2023 shooting, was driven away from the crime scene by his mother, Kiesha Lewis, who helped him flee the state, according to prosecutors. Hall was arrested in Arizona three days later.
Lewis, 50, was initially charged with murder for allegedly aiding and abetting her son’s crime, but pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. She was sentenced to six years in state prison.
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