A woman who killed one man in Chula Vista and paralyzed a woman during a gang-related crime spree in 2018 was sentenced to 30 years to life in state prison.
Britney Canal, 34, was sentenced Thursday for her involvement on April 11, 2018, killing of Mario Serhan, who she and co-defendants Cesar Alvarado, 34, and Micheal Pedraza, 32, mistakenly believed was an undercover police officer surveilling them in Chula Vista.
Canal also pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of a woman, identified as Mya, who prosecutors said was kidnapped, then shot multiple times at Sunset Cliffs. The mother of Mya spoke out to local media and revealed her captors demanded a ransom of $2,500.
Mya was found laying in the ocean water at the bottom of the stairs at sunset cliffs, and was severely hypothermic.
Co-defendant Alvarado also pleaded guilty and is due to be sentenced next year to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Pedraza remains charged with murder, attempted murder, and other crimes.
Another co-defendant, 33-year-old Francisco Aranda, pleaded guilty to other charges and was sentenced earlier this year to five years in state prison.
According to prosecutors, Alvarado, Canal, and Pedraza were in a car that followed Serhan's SUV along Industrial Boulevard on the afternoon of April 11. The canal was driving the vehicle, which pulled up next to Serhan, and Alvarado shot him in the head.
A woman who was in the backseat of Canal's vehicle during Serhan's murder was taken to Sunset Cliffs at about 2 a.m. on April 12, accused of being a “snitch,'' then allegedly shot three times by Pedraza.
According to prosecutors, the woman was robbed and kidnapped by the defendants earlier that week. She was shot in the head, hip, and neck, which struck her spinal cord, paralyzing her.
Authorities arrested the defendants a few days after Serhan's killing after a police pursuit that stretched from San Ysidro to National City. Police and prosecutors also said the defendants were involved in a string of other crimes, including another shooting, a second kidnapping, and multiple robberies.
