Man sent to jail in Lower Coffee Camp shooting

One of the two men charged in the Sept. 2 shooting of two teenagers in a parking lot of Lower Coffee Camp is going to serve time.

Emmanuel Martin Gutierrez, 22, was sentenced to one year in county jail and a five-year prison term that is suspended unless he violates a three-year term of formal probation, a Tulare County District AttorneyÂ’s Office clerk said Friday.

Gutierrez was sentenced after entering a guilty plea as part of a plea agreement entered into on Sept. 20. Details of the plea agreement were unavailable Friday.

The other defendant in the case, Anthony Oley Robinson, 18, rejected a plea agreement and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Thursday, a court records clerk said.

After a preliminary hearing, a judge will determine if there is sufficient evidence for a trial.

Gutierrez and Robinson were charged with attempted murder with accompanying gang allegations in connection to the Sept. 2 shooting, according to past reports.

Authorities are investigating whether or not there is enough evidence to charge a third suspect, a juvenile male.

Charges were not filed against a fourth man who was initially arrested along with Gutierrez and Robinson.

The victims in this case, Freddie Pedraza, 18, and a 15-year-old girl, told Tulare County SheriffÂ’s Department deputies they were in the parking lot area at Lower Coffee Camp when the four males approached them and fired several rounds.

Pedraza was struck twice, in the arm and in the abdomen. The girl was hit once in the arm.

None of the injuries was life-threatening.

Officers from the U.S. Forest Service arrived on the scene first. The victims gave a description of the suspects and their vehicle, a 1997 Chrysler Sebring, to officers, who relayed the information to the Tulare County SheriffÂ’s Department, which had deputies en route to the area.

A responding deputy saw the suspects and their vehicle, reportedly driven by Emmanuel Gutierrez, heading west on Highway 190 from the scene of the shooting, and tried unsuccessfully to stop the car.

The suspects engaged deputies in a high-speed chase that ended with the suspects crashing their car near the intersection of Highway 190 and Road 284 in Porterville.

The suspects fled the vehicle on foot but were later apprehended with the help of a SheriffÂ’s Department K-9.

Detectives from the SheriffÂ’s DepartmentÂ’s Gang Violence Suppression Unit responded to the crash scene, where they recovered the firearm allegedly used in the shooting.