Gang member sentenced to life without parole in triple-murder

A Gardena gang member was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Oct. 17 for shooting three people to death and wounding a fourth, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.

Luis Erasmo Rivera Garcia,  a 30-year-old Latino, was convicted last November of three counts of first-degree murder in the 2008 shooting deaths of Jose Farias, 24, his brother Victor Farias, 25, and Vidal Rebolledo, 23, and one count of attempted murder in the wounding of another man.

The four victims were at a cruising event off Imperial Highway and South Western Avenue in Westmont when an argument broke out between the group and Garcia, who was in another car. Prosecutors said that Garcia mistook the men for gang members.

Garcia pulled a gun and opened fire, then fled. Garcia was on the run for three years. In 2011, authorities did a countywide sweep for members of the Gardena 13 gang and found Garcia.

-- Joseph Serna