Two brothers to be sentenced in gang-related shooting that killed 7-year-old Palmdale girl

Two brothers are scheduled to be sentenced this month in the gang-related shooting death of a second-grader in Palmdale in 2013, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Jesus Alberto Peralta, a 23-year-old Latino, and Carlos Peralta, a 21-year-old Latino, were both found guilty June 23 of first-degree murder and shooting at an occupied motor vehicle.

The jury also found the two guilty of three counts of attempted willful, deliberate and premeditated murder, and found the allegations that they used a gun to be true, according to a news release from the district attorney’s office.

The two are accused of killing Desirae Alexa Macias, a 7-year-old Latina, on Sept. 4, 2013. Desirae was was riding in a car with her sibling, her mother and her mother’s boyfriend.

According to court testimony, the incident began when the Peralta brothers issued a gang challenge to the boyfriend at a Palmdale Mobil gas station.

Following a brief confrontation, the boyfriend got into his car with his girlfriend and her children and left the gas station, prosecutors said.

The Peraltas pursued the family in their own car through residential streets and fired several rounds at the vehicle, prosecutors said.

Desirae was shot in the head, although family members didn’t realize she had been hit until they got home, the girl’s aunt told The Times.

She had been shielding herself in the backseat when she was struck. The girl was taken to the hospital where she died the following evening.

The Peraltas are scheduled to be sentenced July 24 in Department A16 of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, Antelope Valley Branch.

Jesus Peralta faces 170 years to life in state prison and Carlos Peralta faces 110 years to life in prison, according to prosecutors.

— Jeanette Marantos