A man was convicted this week of three counts of first-degree murder for the shooting deaths of a young couple and a toddler inside a Normal Heights apartment nearly 25 years ago.
It was a crime that rocked the community of Normal Heights: The murders of 3 people, one of them a toddler. Decades later, the man accused of the deadly attack is back in court. NBC 7's Dana Williams has more.Contreras, who was 22 years old at the time, fired 16 shots into the Bancroft Street apartment with a rifle, then fled the country, according to prosecutors. He was later arrested in Mexico and extradited to San Diego last year.
The child's parents and a sibling were present when the shooting took place, but uninjured. Plummer died at the scene, while Pearson and Julio Rangel were taken to hospitals, where they were later pronounced dead. A friend of Contreras, Victor Calderon, was also present during the killings and was inadvertently shot in the arm by Contreras, Lindberg alleged. A blood trail leading away from the shooting scene was later positively identified as Calderon's blood.