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Gang member gets 150 years for murder of Carson teenager

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A gang member convicted of murdering a 15-year-old boy in Carson and a woman in Lennox less than two weeks later has been sentenced to 150 years to life in state prison.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Curtis B. Rappe denied the defense’s motion for a new trial for Taniela Fonoifua, 26, who was found guilty a year ago this month of the Oct. 17, 2015 killing of Adalberto Salcedo III, 15, in Carson, and the Oct. 6, 2015, slaying of Sheila Gomez, 40, in Lennox, along with two counts of attempted murder of a man with Gomez and a separate shooting on Jan. 26, 2016, in Gardena.

Jurors also found Fonoifua guilty of one count of possession of a firearm by a felon and determined that he personally discharged a gun during each of the crimes.

The judge rejected the defense’s contention that Fonoifua should have been tried separately from five co-defendants who were charged with two other shootings in Lennox that occurred about three hours apart, including one that left a man dead and his wife seriously wounded.

Co-defendants Otoniel Ventura-Leon, 29, Samisoni Ilifeleti Lauaki, 22, Calvin Leonard Tonga, 27, and Lebanon Fifita, 45, have been sentenced to state prison terms ranging at the low end from 80 years to life to as much as 106 years to life for the Nov. 9, 2015, slaying of Kenneth Campos, 37, and the attempted murder of his wife, who was wounded as the homeless couple was at the back of a doughnut shop to pick up day-old doughnuts from a storekeeper willing to help them.

Ventura-Leon, Lauaki, Tonga and Fifita were also convicted of the attempted murder of another man, who was shot and wounded about three hours earlier the same day, along with a conspiracy

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