Oakland: Two men sentenced in killing of 17-year-old boy over vandalism

OAKLAND — Two men have been sentenced to prison for the 2020 killing of a 17-year-old boy, a shooting apparently spurned by an earlier fistfight and vandalism.

Angel Ahilion-Garcia, 24, was given a 15-year prison sentence after pleading no contest to manslaughter while his co-defendant, 35-year-old Margarito Matias-Calmo, pleaded no contest to assault and received eight years. The sentences were reached through plea deals that saw prosecutors dismiss murder and attempted murder charges.

The victim, 17-year-old Edgar Pablo-Ramirez, was shot around 4 a.m. on Dec. 19, 2020, and died from a gunshot wound to his thigh hours later. Earlier that morning and the previous day, there had been a string of escalating confrontations involving Pablo-Ramirez, his friend, and Matias-Calmo, Matias-Calmo’s brother, and Ahilion-Garcia, the brother’s roommate, according to testimony at a 2023 preliminary hearing.

It started when Ahilion-Garcia approached a Jeep containing a young woman and Pablo-Ramirez’s friend, and punched the friend through an open window. Later, Pablo-Ramirez and his friend retaliated by vandalizing Matias-Calmo’s brother’s truck, perhaps believing it to be Ahilion-Garcia’s, but while they were doing so the two defendants stumbled upon them, authorities said.

Pablo-Ramirez and his friend ran towards their Jeep to make a getaway as the men opened fire, according to police. After the homicide, Ahilion-Garcia allegedly fled to Guatemala, while Matias-Calmo remained in the Bay Area and was arrested, later telling police he was asleep in his vehicle when the shooting occurred, before admitting he fired a gun because he was angry about the vandalism.

Matias-Calmo was arrested and charged in 2021. Ahilion-Garcia was charged last year, after an extradition process.

Both men were sentenced in April, court records show. They’ve also been ordered to pay $7,500 in victim restitution.