Three men sentenced to life for 2013 gang-related killing in Pasadena

Three Latino men were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on April 22 in connection with the robbery and shooting death of a 21-year-old man in Pasadena in 2013, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Zane James Goldstein, a white man from Pasadena, was shot and killed in an alley near Maple Street and Chester Avenue in Pasadena on Jan. 15, 2013.

During the trial, Deputy Dist. Atty. Stefan Mrakich of the district attorney's Hardcore Gang Division said the victim agreed to meet the three defendants in the alley for a drug deal. When Goldstein arrived, the prosecutor said, the defendants tried to rob him and then shot him in the head with a shotgun as he tried to escape.

Peter Parra, 38, of Pasadena; Kevin Jessie Cabrera, 27, of North Hollywood; and Raymond Frank Conchas, 26, of Covina were found guilty Feb. 20 of first-degree murder, attempted second-degree robbery and conspiracy to commit a crime. The jury also found that the murder was committed during a robbery, that a shotgun was used and that the crime was for the benefit of a gang, the prosecutors reported.

The defendants were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, plus 25 years to life in state prison.

Investigators say five people were involved in Goldstein’s killing. A fourth defendant, Michael Piepoli, a 21-year-old white man from Pasadena, was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole on Nov, 12, 2014.

The final defendant, Ward Lacey IV, 20, a black Pasadena man, is charged with first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit a crime in connection with Goldstein’s death. He is scheduled to appear May 27 for a pretrial hearing in Department 101 of the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center.

-- Jeanette Marantos