A Nampa bystander was killed in gang shooting. Here’s one defendant’s sentence
Despite a request for a harsher sentence from the Canyon County Prosecutor’s Office, 3rd District Judge Gabriel McCarthy sent a 20-year-old man to prison for up to 13 years for his involvement in what authorities said was a gang-related shooting in a Nampa restaurant parking lot four years ago.
Lazaro Vela, of Nampa, pleaded guilty to aggravated battery in April, court records showed. He, along with five other young men, were arrested in 2024 in the fatal shooting of Joe Flores, who was days away from turning 24.
Vela’s conviction was for shooting a rival gang member, which led to the killing of Flores.
A member of the Brown Pride Sureños street gang, Vela shot Norteño gang member Pedro Navarro three times on Sept. 1, 2022, according to prosecutors and court filings, and Brian Moreno, another Norteños gang member, retaliated, striking the “innocent bystander” Flores in the crossfire.
Prosecutors asked the judge for a 30-year prison sentence for Vela, with at least 20 years behind bars before he could be eligible for parole. They argued that Vela presents “unacceptable risk” to the community.
Letters submitted to the court by family members described him as a young man who simply made mistakes. His older cousin wrote that he’s more than his criminal charges, and his sister described him as a “loving, caring and kind kid.”
“Lazaro is a person of good moral character. I can see that might be hard to believe, given the circumstances — but it’s true,” his sister wrote.
McCarthy sentenced him to 13 years, with the possibility of parole after seven. He won’t begin serving that sentence until he finishes the fixed portion — 10 years — of his sentence in an Ada County case that also was a shooting. This means he could be released on parole after 17 years behind bars, just three short of the minimum 20-year sentence asked for by the prosecution.
“This man has actually shot people in two separate gang shootings in public places in our community,” Canyon County Prosecuting Attorney Chris Boyd wrote in a statement, adding that incarceration would be the only way to safeguard the community.
A year after the Nampa shooting, Vela was involved in a Grove Plaza shooting in Boise, Canyon prosecutors said. He fired several rounds at Norteños gang members, they said, and a 16-year-old girl was struck in the arm and suffered a non-displaced fracture, according to a news release.
He was convicted at trial of aggravated battery and sentenced to at least 10 years in prison, with another decade he could spend in prison, on parole or both.
Out of the other five men charged in this case, only Navarro’s case is still pending. He accepted a plea deal in August for felony aiding and abetting aggravated assault and is expected to be sentenced in June, according to court records.
Moreno received the harshest punishment, with 50 years in prison and the possibility of parole only after 30 years behind bars. He was convicted of first-degree murder and an enhancement by a 12-person jury in February. The other three men — ages 21, 24 and 26 — were all sentenced on lesser charges.
