CASE OF INTEREST

 

Date: May 25, 2006

Case: People v. Robert Crisler

Contact: Rick Miller, Deputy District Attorney
             Gang Unit
             Telephone: 874-8686

District Attorney Jan Scully announced today that a jury convicted Robert Crisler of first degree murder, and found true the special circumstance that the murder was committed for the benefit of the Sureno criminal street gang. On August 5, 2004, Crisler went with six fellow gang members to the home of two rival gang members seeking revenge for the vandalism of a truck that had occurred six weeks earlier. The people they were looking for were not at the residence when they arrived, but three other people were outside in the driveway. One of them was fifteen year old Mario Vidal.

Crisler and his group challenged Vidal and his companions to fight, but they refused. Crisler pulled out a revolver, and as Vidal tried to run back inside the residence, Crisler shot him in the back. Vidal died within minutes.

Crisler and his fellow gang members were arrested the next day by the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department. The six accomplices received California Youth Authority and State Prison sentences ranging between six and eight years. Crisler now faces a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.

The trial prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Rick Miller, said “Robert Crisler is a particularly violent gang member that absolutely needed to be removed from our community. The jury’s verdict ensures that he will never again pose a threat to our safety.”