A 21-year-old San Pedro man was sentenced to more than 24 years in state prison on Monday, Sept. 29, for his involvement in the fatal shooting of an off-duty Monterey Park police officer in Downey during a botched daytime robbery attempt in August 2022.
Gerardo Magallanes, clad in a blue jumpsuit and sporting long braids that went beneath his shoulders, listened intently as three siblings of Gardiel Solorio spoke to the pain they’ve suffered since the death and their anger at Magallanes and co-defendant Carlos Daniel Delcid, with at least one sibling saying he seemed to view the court proceedings “as a game.”
Magallanes, who was not accused of firing the shots that killed Solorio, pleaded no contest on Sept. 12 to voluntary manslaughter and unlawful firearm activity. He also admitted allegations of furnishing a firearm and street terrorism.
He and family members watching in the gallery declined to speak during the hearing.
Solorio, 26, was off-duty, had just finished a workout at LA Fitness at Apollo Landing in Downey and was in his Dodge Charger backing out of a parking space on Aug. 8, 2022, when Delcid allegedly approached and attempted to rob him, prosecutors have said.
Downey police Detective Ron Gee testified during a preliminary hearing for Delcid that Magallanes told an undercover officer in jail that he watched Delcid get out of their car and approach the Dodge Charger, then heard five loud “pops” before Delcid ran back to the car.
Magallanes was 18 at the time of the shooting.
Solorio was hired as a recruit in late January 2022 and was a couple of weeks into a field-training program with the Monterey Park Police Department, officials said the following day the shooting. Officials described him as hard-working, dedicated and family oriented.
He grew up in Bell Gardens and graduated from Cal State Los Angeles with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, they said.
On Monday, described the plea deal as “another slap in the face,” and told the court that Magallanes had been disrespectful during court proceedings.
Superior Court Judge Joseph R. Porras acknowledged that both Magallanes and Delcid seemed to not take past court proceedings seriously, acting “slick” and throwing up gang signs toward family members as they entered the courtroom. Their hearings would be held on separate days in an attempt to get them to stop.
The siblings described Gardiel Solorio as a kind, generous, funny, thoughtful and a successful young man who was saving up to put a down payment on a home. They said family gatherings have not been the same without his loud laughter and infectious energy.
“To you, he was no one,” said Eva Solorio, Gardiel’s older sister. “To us, he was everything.
“I lost more than a brother,” she continued. “I lost a piece of myself.”
Carlos Solorio told the court his brother “was stolen from me in the most cowardly way possible.”
Ana Solorio, another sister, said it was ironic that her brother “wanted to help the very people who took his life.”
She said Solorio wanted to be a father someday and that he was “the uncle everyone wants.”
Judge Porras told Magallanes that because he’s so young, he may not yet understand the full weight of what his actions have done, but implored him to think long and hard about the path he wants to take while he’s in prison.
“You’ll start to see this is a tragic event for the victim’s family to a magnitude not many families face,” Porras said, adding that Solorio was successful and “doing all the right things.”
Porras told Magallanes that he was a prosecutor working gang homicides when Magallanes was born in 2004. He said it was likely that someone born today would be in the same seat as Magallanes when he or she is his age.
“When will this stop?” the judge asked. “Will it stop? It needs to stop.”
Delcid, the alleged shooter, is awaiting trial.
A 17-year-old boy identified as the driver during the shooting pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced in July to 11 years, prosecutor Geoff Lewin said.