Two Angelenos have been convicted of murdering two teenage girls 10 years ago, when the culprits were also teens, in what officials called a “gang-motivated” attack.
Jose Antonio Echeverria and Dallas Stone Pineda were 18 and 17 years old, respectively, when they killed Briana Nicole Gallegos, 17, and Gabriela Calzada, 19, on Oct. 27, 2015.
Echeverria, aka “Klepto,” and Pineda, aka “Trippy,” shot one of the girls and bludgeoned both to death with a rock at Ernest. E. Debs Regional Park. Their bodies were found by a dog walker the next day.
The teen girls were known by and “specifically targeted” by Echeverria and Pineda, who were convicted by a jury in 2025 of two counts of first-degree murder and special circumstances of lying in wait and killing multiple victims, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
“These brutal killings cut short the lives of two teenagers and left their families devastated,” District Attorney Nathan Hochman said. “This verdict delivers justice for the victims, and I want to thank our Gang Homicide Division in particular Deputy District Attorneys David Ayvazian and Stephen Lonseth for their tireless work in pursuing this case.”
Echeverria and Pineda are scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 11, and each faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.
They’re being held at the Men’s Central Jail.
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