Politics & Government
Union City Police Credited With Role In Cracking Murder Case
The victim was gunned down in Cherryland while pushing his 3-month-old son in a baby stroller.
ALAMEDA, CA — An Alameda woman pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter on Friday for her role in the revenge fatal shooting in unincorporated Hayward in 2017 of a former gang member who had testified against several gang colleagues.
Valeria Boden didn't fire any shots in the fatal shooting of Daniel Deltoro, 29, of Hayward, in the 200 block of Willow Avenue in the Cherryland neighborhood of Hayward at about 2:45 p.m. on July 19, 2017, while Deltoro was pushing his 3-month-old son in a stroller.
But Alameda County prosecutor Jimmie Wilson said Boden played a key role by driving reputed gang members Pablo Mendoza, 27, of Hayward, and Brandon Follings, 28, when they hunted down and killed Deltoro. Wilson said Deltoro was "put on a bad news list and was red-lighted and targeted" because he had testified in 2015 in the trial of Joel Perry Jr., who he said was a member of the Decoto gang.
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Boden was charged with murder but prosecutors gave her a favorable plea deal after she testified against Mendoza and Follings, who had been her boyfriend, in a trial in April and May in which they were convicted of first-degree murder and the special circumstance of murdering a witness.
Mendoza and Follings also were convicted of an enhancement that they committed the killing to benefit a criminal street gang.
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Mendoza and Follings were both sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole but Boden will only get a 3-year state prison term when she's sentenced by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Kevin Murphy on Sept. 23.
Boden was scheduled to stand trial with Mendoza and Follings but Wilson said she decided to testify for the prosecution after Follings told her in open court during pretrial hearings in April that he would harm her daughter if she "snitched" on him.
Boden, who has long brown hair and wears glasses, wore a red-and-white jail uniform at her hearing on Friday, indicating that she's being held in a special unit for her protection.
In her testimony on May 1 Boden said she was driving Mendoza and Follings on July 19, 2017, when they spotted Deltoro.
Boden said Mendoza said he recognized Deltoro "as somebody who used to be in his 'hood and that he had snitched."
Perry was convicted of first-degree murder and attempted murder for a shooting at a Union City park in 2008 that left a 28-year-old man dead and another man seriously injured. Three other reputed gang members pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in that case.
Wilson said the 2008 case "had gone cold" but when Deltoro provided crucial information to Union City police they were able to develop information that helped them put together their case against Perry and three associates.
Wilson alleged that Mendoza, who he said also belongs to the Decoto gang, never forgave Deltoro for coming forward and recruited Follings, who he said is a member of the Ice City gang in Oakland, to help him kill Deltoro.
Wilson told jurors in the trial of Mendoza and Follings, "In the gang culture, you don't testify against a gang member. What comes from that is violence or death."
Wilson said on Friday that he agreed to let Boden plead no contest to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter because, "We needed her (testimony) to know what was said in the car" before Mendoza and Follings killed Deltoro and it would have been more difficult to convict the two men
without her testimony.
Boden's attorney Ernie Castillo said Boden is glad "to put this behind her and pick up the pieces of her life."
Deltoro's widow attended Boden's hearing but declined to comment afterward.
When Mendoza and Follings were sentenced on June 6 she said, "My husband wasn't perfect, but who is? He learned from his mistakes and was turning his life around and had talked to his parole officer about removing his gang tattoos."
— Bay City News
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