Crime & Safety

Aliso Viejo Man Sentenced to Life in Prison for Fatal Shooting

Alfredo Cruz, 23, was the third man convicted and sentenced for the murder a Lake Forest man.

Alfredo Cruz of Aliso Viejo was sentenced to 15 years to life today for the 2008 murder of Lake Forest's Luis Alejandro "Alex" Rivera in a dispute over Cruz's girlfriend.

Cruz, 23, was found guilty of second-degree murder in December, following and the earlier convictions of co-defendants Edgard Calvillo, 22 and Santos Escamilla, 21.

The three men were accused of driving to the Lake Forest home of 22-year-old Rivera and killing him with a semi-automatic rifle in March 2008.

Find out what's happening in Aliso Viejowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

By all accounts, Cruz didn't fire the weapon that killed Rivera outside the Ankerton Drive home.

But prosecutors said he recruited the two other men to attack Rivera, and drove them to and from the murder scene because he suspected had hit on Cruz's girlfriend and made threats against Cruz.

Find out what's happening in Aliso Viejowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"He didn't pull the trigger," prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh told the jury during the trial's opening statements, "but he committed murder."

Rivera is survived by a 17-month-old son, Isak. , his mother, Yolanda, said the family was still struggling to understand what happened.

"He asks for his daddy all the time," Yolanda said of Isak.  "We'll go to the cemetery and he'll ask, 'Daddy, why aren't you talking to me?'  He asks me, 'Why is Daddy not here?  Why do other kids have fathers and I don't have one?' "

In February 2010, Calvillo was sentenced to 40 years to life in state prison, and Escamilla, who pled guilty, was sentenced to 15 years.

Read about Cruz's trial , and about Rivera's family .

William Hillyard contributed to this story.


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