Petaluma Murder Suspect Won't Face Death Penalty

Prosecutors will not seek the death penalty for an alleged gang member from Petaluma who is among multiple suspects accused of killing three men in a 2010 gang-related murder spree, KTVU reports.

Victor Flores, 23, is accused of participating in the 2010 racketeering murders of three young men perceived as rival gang members in South San Francisco.

Prosecutors in a court filing on Thursday announced they will not seek the death penalty for Flores and two other men suspected in the 2010 racketeering murders.

Flores was among 19 members of the South San Francisco-based, Norteno-affiliated 500 Block/C Street organization indicted on an array of gang-related charges in 2012.

Joseph Ortiz, 23, of South San Francisco, is among 14 of those suspects who have pleaded guilty to various charges, according to the report.

Ortiz pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Susan Illston to a total of 25 charges, including three murders in aid of racketeering in the 2010 killings.

He will be sentenced by Illston on Nov. 1 and faces a mandatory life sentence for each of the three murder charges.

The victims who were killed were Omar Cortez, 18, Gonzalo Avalos, 19, and Hector Flores, 20, all of South San Francisco,

Ortiz also admitted during his plea to shooting at four suspected Sureno gang members and wounding three of them four days earlier, and to carrying out armed robberies of a jewelry store in South San Francisco and a 7-Eleven store in Pacifica in April 2010.

The 500 Block and C Street gangs were originally separate Norteno-affiliated groups, but have functioned as a single association since the mid-2000s, according to the indictment.

Bay City News contributed to this report.