DUBLIN — Two Bay Area men who in 2020 shot themselves in Oakland but missed and killed a 19-year-old woman have been sentenced to decades in prison, court records show.
Fernando Sevilla, 43, was sentenced to 21 years and eight months in prison, while Willie Samuels, 29, was sentenced to 28 years and four months in prison. Both men have already been transferred to state prison. The sentences were handed down late last year but were not previously announced.
Seville and Samuels went on trial last year, each blaming the other for the November 2020 shooting that killed Brentwood resident Madalyn Sandoval. The men were both convicted of voluntary manslaughter with an enhanced weapon, but avoided a murder conviction.
During the sentencing hearing, several members of Sandoval’s family spoke. His brother said he had no sympathy for Sevilla, who he said deserved life in prison for his “terrible mistake”. But most of the criticism has been reserved for Samuels, whom his family members have described as a manipulator who coerced and trafficked Sandoval.
“You abused my sister. You manipulated her and you put her in the situation that she was in,” Sandoval’s brother, Mitchell Sandoval, told Samuels during the hearing. He later added: “You are a monster and your place is in this prison cell for the rest of your life. Society has no place for men like you.
Another sister, Vanessa Sandoval, called it a “waste of air.”
“The name Madalyn Sandoval should live forever. She touched too many things in our lives in her 19 short years on this earth,” said Vanessa Sandoval. “She was the most loving, caring, free-spirited soul I have ever known. »
Samuels and Seville found themselves in a life-and-death conflict that quickly escalated and was captured by nearby surveillance cameras. It started when Sandoval and Sevilla arrived in the same car and parked near San Antonio Park in East Oakland, but after a few minutes, Sandoval left Sevilla’s truck and fled toward Samuels’ vehicle which s He was arrested in a nearby alley.
Sevilla parked his truck next to Samuels’ car, and the two exchanged words, then gunfire. According to Alameda County Judge Paul Delucchi, after the shooting, Samuels drove Sandoval to the hospital and simply “threw” her to the front.
Both Samuels and Sevilla spoke during the sentencing hearing. Sevilla apologized, saying: “it was not my intention nor my plan.” Prosecutors, however, pointed out in a sentencing memo that he admitted to smashing the gun he used with a hammer and that he was recorded on a jail call saying he believed that without the murder weapon, he could not be charged.
“I was scared. I’m really sorry. She’s in my prayers. I ask for forgiveness,” Seville said.
When it was his turn to speak, Samuels wanted to remind those present that he was also mourning the loss of Sandoval.
“Maddie was family to me. I’ll say it again: Maddie was family to me…I never intended for Maddie not to be here,” he said, later adding that he was not the type to film his back to his family. “I never intended to threaten the life of Sevilla in any way. I didn’t know this was going to happen.
Minutes later, Judge Delucchi took the stand, calling Samuels’ actions — leaving Sandoval in the hospital — “one of the most callous, cold-blooded, worst things I’ve ever seen from my life “. Prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo that Samuels flagged down a passerby driving a truck, placed a dying Sandoval in the bed, then drove off in his own Honda, letting the good Samaritan take him to the hospital. .
“I want to throw a dying Madalyn Sandoval in the back of a van and then run away, be told ‘I’m not turning my back on my family,’ that’s a crazy thing,” Delucchi said.
California Daily Newspapers
