A skateboard-riding killer has been convicted a second time in the shooting death of another board rider in Lodi.
Alejandro Duran Mercado was convicted of second-degree murder during a retrial in the 2021 death of Cenobio “Nick” Gallegos, the San Joaquin County district attorney’s office said.
Gallegos was an “innocent young man whose life was taken without cause,” San Joaquin County District Attorney Ron Freitas said in a statement. “While no verdict can undo that loss, we hope this outcome brings a measure of justice and peace to his family.”
Mercado was skateboarding on east Pine Street in Lodi in February 2021 when he came across another skateboarder headed in the opposite direction, prosecutors said. That rider, Gallegos, was wearing a red shirt, which led Mercado to believe he was a rival gang member. In fact, Mercado was unarmed and didn’t belong to any gang, the district attorney said.
With a parked car between them, Mercado got off his skateboard, drew a .357-magnum revolver and walked toward Gallegos while firing two bullets, one of which struck the victim in the right temple, according the DA’s office.
Mercado fled, tried to clean his gun to make it harder to link to the crime and also tried to change his appearance, prosecutors said. But Lodi police were still able to identify him as the homicide suspect through video and a witness account.
Mercado was previously convicted of the same murder charge with firearm enhancements, but the conviction was overturned by an appellate court because of bad jury instructions. He faces sentencing on the new conviction, which could be up to 40 years in state prison, on June 1.