A gang member was sentenced to 60 years to life in prison for fatally shooting a 20-year-old U.S. Marine outside a San Bernardino strip club in 2016, officials announced Thursday.
Last summer, Arturo Perez Medina, a WestSide Verdugo gang member, had been found guilty of killing Pfc. Douglas Rivas-Rauda.
The victim, who was stationed at 29 Palms, was standing outside Flesh Club in the 100 block of West Hospitality Lane in April 2016 when Medina walked up to him and shot him multiple times with a handgun, according to the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office.
Before the shooting, Rauda was in an altercation with another man in the parking lot.
Medina was arrested in Tijuana in October 2016 after surveillance footage, forensic evidence and witness interviews identified him as a suspect, officials said.
Most of the witnesses of the crime were exotic dancers who were “scattered throughout the United States, and uncooperative,” according to the DA’s office. Authorities were able to track them down, and 34 witnesses testified during the trial, officials said.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the FBI assisted in the investigation.
