A radical California DA is under fire for going easy on three gangbangers charged with shooting a 5-year-old girl through the heart and killing her earlier this month.
Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price declined to add gun and gang enhancements to murder raps against the suspects — a “staggering” move which could significantly lessen their sentences.
“Not filing gun and gang enhancements in a case like this is an extreme departure from California criminal law practice,” veteran Los Angeles County prosecutor Jason Lustig told The Post. “It’s extreme.”
The Berkeley Scanner first reported the lack of enhancements alongside basic murder charges and called it a “break in precedent” and the “first time anything like it has happened in Alameda County” in such a serious case.
Enhancements to murder charges can mean the difference between a sentence of 15 to 25 years in prison and life without any possibility of parole.
Little Eliyanah Crisostomo was traveling in a car with several family members on a freeway in Fremont on April 8 when three gang members pulled up beside their vehicle.The occupants believed the driver of Crisostomo’s car to be a rival gang member, and one opened fire.
Crisostomo’s relatives realized she had been hit and pulled over after spotting a highway patrolman further down the freeway.
The officer tried to treat the child, but she died at the scene from a bullet to the heart.
The shooting sparked shock and outrage across the nation, with authorities describing the murder as a “depraved” and “heinous” act of violence.
Cops said Kristo Ayala, 25, of Pleasanton, fired three shots at the car — including the fatal bullet that pierced Crisostomo’s chest.
He was later arrested along with two other men who were in the vehicle at the time of the killing — Humberto Anaya and Emmanuel Sarango. All three men have been charged with murder.
Price, a graduate of Yale and Berkeley’s Boalt Law School, was elected to office in November after pledging to “disrupt” Alameda County’s prosecutorial conventions.
She distributed a memo to staffers instructing them not to file criminal enhancements — which dramatically increase sentences — in nearly all cases, including violent felonies. Price has also signaled her preference for probation in the vast majority of crimes handled by her office.
“This directive reduces reliance on sentencing enhancements and allegations as an effort to bring balance back to sentencing and reduce recidivism,” Price wrote in the memo.
She recently drew the ire of Alameda County’s Asian community over her handling of startlingly similar case of a gang-related murder involving a toddler.
According to police, Jasper Wu was struck by a stray bullet while riding in a car with his mother in Oakland in 2021. Three gang members were arrested in connection with the case and are facing murder charges.
Price has yet to confirm whether she’ll keep several criminal enhancements imposed by her predecessor, Nancy O’Malley.
At a Sunday rally, Price stood by her decisions and claimed her critics are motivated by racism and her attempts to undo prosecutorial bias.
“The lesson is that when you show up for freedom and justice, you have to be ready for the backlash,” she told a crowd of backers.
Price highlighted how minorities are arrested at a far higher rate than white people in her county.
“Some people often say why does it matter that you’re the first Black woman to serve in this seat?” she asked the crowd. “And they need to understand the reality of being Black in Alameda County.
“If you are a Black person in Alameda County, you are 20 times more likely to be incarcerated than a White person. Racial injustice in this county is what we all need to be firmly committed against.”
But one local prosecutor, who asked not to be named, questioned Price’s logic.
“Most of the victims of serious violent crime in Alameda County — I mean almost all — are black and brown too,” the source said. “That’s the cruel irony here.”
Lustig said Price’s approach mirrors that of controversial Los Angeles County DA George Gascon, who recently survived a recall vote.
Lustig has endorsed colleague and current Deputy LA County Deputy DA John Lewin in his race against Gascon next year.
“It’s all from the same playbook,” he said. “It’s the same game. Their goal is to empty the prisons. And we are seeing the result of these policies on the street across the state. Zombies, drug addicts, violent crimes, shootings. People aren’t being held accountable.”
In a case like Crisostomo’s, Lustig said gun and gang enhancements significantly boost potential sentences by decades.
“These enhancements are critical to curtail actual criminal behavior,” he said. “Not applying them emboldens the criminal element. It sends a message that you can use guns in the commission of the rime and you won’t get punished for it.”
Price’s office was not available for comment Wednesday. They have previously noted their charging decisions are subject to change.