A Latino accused of a gang killing gets 43 years in plea deal

The youngest person in San Mateo County history to be charged as an adult with murder has been sentenced to 43 years in prison after pleading no contest to voluntary manslaughter and witness dissuasion. The plea from Josue Orozco, 20, ends a years-long legal saga that included the teen’s headline-grabbing escape from county’s youth lock-up facility while he awaited trial and his capture months later in Texas. Prosecutors accused Orozco of shooting 21-year-old rival gang member Francisco Rodriguez in the back of the head in 2005 when he was 14 years old. Orozco was scheduled to be retried on a charge of first-degree murder after his first trial ended with a deadlocked jury. But instead, he pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and nine counts of witness intimidation and was immediately sentenced to 43 years in prison, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Karen Guidotti. In his first trial, prosecutors alleged that Orozco stepped out of a car filled with Sureno gang members and shot Rodriguez, a former Norteno gang member.