Shooting victim gets prison in unrelated shooting

A Carson City man, who failed to appear at a court hearing of a man who shot him, was sentenced this week to prison in the unrelated shooting of a third man.

Gabriel "Bobby" Mu-oz, 28, was sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison for the July 27 drive-by shooting of Salvador Maldonado, 22, and Jose Escobar, 21, on Saliman Road.

According to police, at 12:30 a.m. Maldonado and Escobar were traveling east on Highway 50 near Mills Park when they saw Mu-oz in a Ford Bronco next to them, flashing "gang signs."

Maldonado then turned onto Saliman Road and was followed by the Bronco, he told police.

When he came to a stop at Saliman Road and Robinson Street, the Bronco pulled up beside them, and Mu-oz fired five shots. One struck Maldonado in the hand.

Escobar had a grazing gunshot wound to his back.

Mu-oz was arrested Aug. 1.

Following a preliminary hearing in which he openly wept, Mu-oz pleaded guilty Nov. 19 to assault with a deadly weapon. In exchange, the District Attorney's Office dropped three felony counts of attempted murder, battery with a deadly weapon and shooting a firearm from an occupied vehicle.

On April 30, 2001, Mu-oz was seriously injured in a shooting following a fight with Rigoberto Vega Aquilar, 21, who was charged with attempted murder.

He was scheduled to testify Dec. 10, 2001, in a court hearing against Vega-Aguilar, but failed to appear, forcing the District Attorney's Office to offer the shooter a plea to a lesser charge of assault with a deadly weapon.

Vega-Aguilar was sentenced to one year in jail Feb. 12 for shooting Mu-oz twice in the back after the two were in a fistfight on Airport Road.

Mu-oz had several surgeries to repair damage to his leg after a bullet entered his hip, shattering his leg bone.

In a May 2001 interview from his hospital bed, Mu-oz denied gang

involvement.

"I am not going to retaliate," Mu-oz had said. "If I do something, then they'll do something, and it will just go on and on. I just hope it stops."