What Happened To Crystal Theobald's Killers?
Crystal Theobald was 24 years old when she was gunned down outside her home by members of the La Sierra-based Varrio 5150 gang in Riverside, California in 2006.
According to NBC Los Angeles, there were eight people involved in perpetrating that shooting when they mistakenly took Theobald, her brother Justin Theobald, and her boyfriend Juan Patlan for members of MD-17, a rival gang. However, it was two of those eight who physically pulled the triggers on the semiautomatic weapons that killed Theobald and wounded Patlan. Justin Theobald was not hit, per NBC Palm Springs.
After the shooting, law enforcement believed members of the 5150 gang were responsible for the murder. Theobald's mother, Belinda Lane, took matters into her own hands, and with the help of her niece they got onto My Space and set up fake profiles in an effort to ensnare her daughter's killers — and it worked, Oxygen reported.
Due to the cat-fishing expedition Lane and her niece utilized, the teens who pulled the trigger that night were both eventually charged in Theobald's murder, but not before one of her killers struck again.
Both of the teens who killed Crystal Theopold are in prison
According to case information on Leagle, Julio Ceasar Heredia, then 18, was one of the gunmen who killed Crystal Theobald on February 24, 2006. Two months later he tried to kill Lawrence Gonzalez, a former member of a rival gang from Orange County, but Gonzalez got away, according to Leagle.
In 2011 Heredia was convicted in of murder and attempted murder for both cases. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and is currently serving his sentence at California State Prison, Sacramento, per the California Department of Corrections.
It took much longer for the other gunman to be caught. According to Oxygen, William Sotelo realized Lane and police were onto him when she lost patience in their My Space chats using the fake profile. She asked, "Why did you kill me?" Sotelo went dark after that, but eventually Lane got a tip that he had moved to Mexico and was living there with his wife and four kids, Oxygen reported. Sotelo was extradited and brought back to California in 2016 where he copped a plea deal. In exchange for pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter, the state dropped their initial charges of murder, attempted murder and shooting at an occupied vehicle, according to NBC Los Angeles.
Sotelo is serving a 22-year sentence at Centinela State Prison in California, per the California Department of Corrections. He will be eligible for parole in May 2030.
A documentary on the case, titled Why Did You Kill Me?, is now streaming on Netflix.