SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A former U.S. Marine who fatally shot a man outside a Miramar bar last year was sentenced Friday to 50 years to life in state prison.
Damani Jerry Wiltshire-Beal, 23, was convicted by a San Diego jury of murder, plus an allegation of using a firearm in the Feb. 19, 2022, shooting death of Kyle Delangel, 37, of National City.
Prosecutors allege Wiltshire-Beal shot Delangel multiple times in the parking lot of Off Base Bar, while co-defendant Samuel Victor Perez, 24, drove Wiltshire-Beal from the scene. Perez was convicted of being as an accessory after the fact and was sentenced to a county jail term.
The shooting stemmed from an argument that sparked between the defendants and several women in the parking lot at around 2 a.m. The women then went into the bar and told employees and other patrons about the altercation, leading Delangel to confront the defendants, according to prosecutors.
After the shooting, Delangel was taken to a hospital to undergo emergency surgery, but he later died.
Both defendants were arrested separately at their residences later that day.
At the time of the shooting, Wiltshire-Beal was an active-duty Marine stationed at MCAS Miramar.
Wiltshire-Beal's defense attorney, Caley Anderson, asked San Diego Superior Court Judge Carlos Armour to consider sentencing his client to less than the maximum term of 25 years to life for the firearm allegation.
The judge declined to do so and called the killing "a gratuitous murder with really no provocation."
Armour said, "I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that (Delangel) was heroically coming to the help of young women who were being verbally and physically harassed by the defendant and his cohort. ... He put himself in harm's way and unfortunately suffered the consequences of the actions of the defendant and Mr. Perez."
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