VISTA — A 20-year-old man has been charged by law enforcement in connection with a shooting in Vista last summer that injured three individuals and left one dead.
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office filed a slew of charges on Tuesday against Jose Ulices Luna, including murder, three accounts of attempted murder, and using a firearm to cause great bodily injury.
In July, four teenagers arrived at Palomar Hospital with gunshot wounds, soon after police had received a 911 call near Civic Center Drive. Nineteen-year-old Antonio Junior Calderon Mendiola died from his injuries, and the three other young men — ages 16, 17 and 18 — required hospitalization.
According to sheriff’s jail records, Luna has been in custody for the past five months in connection with separate charges from August, including carjacking, robbery, and driving unsafely while evading officers by driving the wrong way on the highway.
The District Attorney’s Office has filed an amended criminal complaint against Luna outlining the charges related to both the July shooting as well as the August carjacking and robbery. According to the complaint, Luna has also been involved in gang activity.
The criminal complaint also alleges that Luna carried out these crimes in July and August while out on bail for previous firearm-related offenses from 2023.
It is unclear exactly when law enforcement determined that Luna was involved in the fatal July shooting, as he was already in custody when the charges were filed on Tuesday.
Luna will appear in court at the Vista Courthouse on Feb. 21 at 8:30 a.m. related to all three criminal cases against him, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
