More than three years after a hail of bullets rained down outside Des Moines’ East High School, the 10th and youngest defendant in the fatal drive-by shooting was sentenced to serve up to life in prison.
Jose Lopez-Perez, 15, was killed and two girls standing nearby were critically wounded by the gunfire on March 7, 2022. Prosecutors said the 10 defendants, who were ages 14 to 17 at the time, were targeting Lopez-Perez’s brother, who escaped unscathed.
Eight youths who were at least 16 were prosecuted as adults and received sentences ranging from probation to life in prison with the possibility of parole. The two youngest teens were prosecuted as youthful offenders, meaning they remained in the juvenile court system until formal sentencing at age 18.
On Friday, May 30, the second of those teens and the last to be sentenced in the case, Nyang Chamdual, was ordered to was ordered to serve up to life in prison, but with no mandatory minimum before he is eligible for parole. He had pleaded guilty to first-degree murder,
What did Nyang Chamdual do?
Prosecutors have said the 10 teens formed a caravan of three vehicles to drive past East High, where at least five of them, including Chamdual, fired toward the victims.
Chamdual admitted to firing two shots with a revolver from the third vehicle in line. His attorney, Van Plumb, showed frame-by-frame surveillance video images in Friday’s hearing to argue that Chamdual did not aim or fire his weapon until after the vehicle was already past the victims.
Previously: 10 teens, 6 guns, 42 bullets complicate trials in killing outside East High
Most of the teens pleaded guilty to first- or second-degree murder charges, as well as separate injury charges in some cases for the two other victims, and received sentences ranging from 50 years to life, with the opportunity for parole. Several others, including drivers in two of the vehicles, received shorter sentences of 20 years. The shortest sentence, of probation, went to a teen who did not ride to the shooting scene but provided a gun and helped conceal evidence afterward.
Defendant, victim’s mother, judge comment on shooting
Deborha Perez, mother of Jose David Lopez, the 15-year-old killed in the March 2022 shooting outside East High School, gives a victim impact statement during the sentencing hearing for Romeo Perdomo, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023.
Chamdual read aloud several letters he had written to the court, his family and the victims of the shooting apologizing for his actions.
“I carry the weight of that day every single moment of my life, and for that I am truly sorry,” he said. “… I will spend the rest of my life trying to become someone worthy of forgiveness.”
In a letter to Jose Lopez-Perez’s mother, Deborha Perez, Chamdual said that at the time his actions were rooted in a “cycle of hatred” between two gangs, a mindset he has worked to leave behind in his time at the Iowa State Training School.
“Now I think of Jose not as a rival, but as someone’s son, someone’s brother,” he said. “I think of Kemery and Jessica (the two girls who were shot) as innocent victims.”
Perez, who was unable to attend Friday’s hearing as she had the nine prior sentencings, provided a statement read by an advocate that described her son as “goofy, loud, loving, caring, with a beautiful smile that just brightened your day and mellowed your heart.”
“It is so very painful, it is unbearable, every single day and night I live without him,” she wrote.
Chief Judge Michael Huppert, in sentencing Chamdual, applauded the reports of his progress at the State Training School, including graduating from high school with honors and winning special privileges for his behavior. But he said the crime in question was far to serious to consider a suspended sentence, as Plumb requested.
“I believe the offense at issue warrants a much more serious disposition than what you’re asking me to do today,” he said. “It would minimize the nature of the offense to allow you to remain in the community at this time. … I believe a period of incarceration is appropriate.”
William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com or 715-573-8166.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Final East High shooting teen sentenced to life with chance for parole