Appellate court panel rejects appeal in South LA murders

A state appellate court panel has rejected an appeal filed on behalf of one of three people convicted in a Mother’s Day 2018 shooting in South Los Angeles that left two 15-year-old boys dead and two others wounded.
The three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal on Oct. 15 turned down Cristian Ivan Macias’ claim that substantial evidence does not support the jury’s finding that the now 25-year-old defendant personally used and intentionally discharged a firearm that caused death or great bodily injury.
Macias and co-defendants Edwin Federico Loza, now 25, and Nancy De La Rocha, now 32, were convicted last year of first-degree murder for the May 13, 2018, shootings of La Marrion Upchurch of Long Beach and Monyae Jackson of Los Angeles in the 300 block of West Manchester Avenue near the 110 Freeway.
The panel also found true the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, along with the allegation that Macias personally and intentionally discharged a firearm.
Jurors also convicted the defendants of two counts each of attempted murder for the shootings of two other 15-year-old boys who were injured, along with one count each of conspiracy to commit murder.
All three are serving life in prison without the possibility of parole.
At Macias’ sentencing in August 2023, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench called it a “tragic situation and senseless killing.”
In its 10-page ruling in Macias’ case, the appellate court panel found that testimony from the two surviving victims, physical evidence and surveillance videos corroborated Macias’ jailhouse admissions to an informant and his description of the events surrounding the shooting.
In his closing argument during last year’s trial, Deputy District Attorney Brian Chang called the slayings the “result of a calculated plan to kill by the defendants,” alleging that Macias and Loza were gang members and that De La Rocha — whom a Los Angeles police officer believed was a gang associate — served as the driver.
The prosecutor told jurors that De La Rocha was initially confronted by a man who pointed a gun at her at a taco stand. Chang said Loza left to arm himself with a weapon, and that Macias had a separate confrontation with the four teenage boys in which a gun that wound up being a pellet gun was pointed at him by Jackson before Macias ran away and subsequently got into De La Rocha’s black SUV.
Of the defendants, Chang said, “It’s a planned execution … They hunted for them.”
“They utilized a car to get the jump on them … to surprise the victims,” the prosecutor said, telling jurors that the four teenagers were shot while running away.