The California Supreme Court has shut down the last major appeal for Jacquise Carlton Wright, the second man convicted in the 2020 shooting that killed Alejandra Martinez outside a popular Long Beach taco truck. Wright, now 36, is serving a sentence of 28 years to life after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder and related charges tied to the crossfire that erupted that night.
The high court's decision, announced April 29, means Wright's conviction and sentence remain in place, according to MyNewsLA. The move effectively ends his direct state-court appeal in a case that grew out of a gang-related confrontation in a parking lot near Magnolia Avenue and Anaheim Street.
Wright's co-defendant, Tyquan Markeith Benson, was convicted in 2023 and later hit with a lengthy term of 50 years to life plus another 17 years and eight months. Jurors found him guilty of first-degree murder and several other felonies tied to the Dec. 4, 2020, shooting. The California Supreme Court also declined to review his petition in November 2025, the Long Beach Post reports.
Appeals panel flagged jailhouse account
In January, a three-justice panel of the California Court of Appeals issued a 26-page opinion that zeroed in on what Wright told an undercover operative planted in his jail cell. Wright gave a "detailed account" of the shooting, according to MyNewsLA. The panel rejected Wright's argument that those statements should never have gone before the jury and upheld the verdicts on murder and related counts.
Defense maintains Wright was not the shooter
At trial, Wright's attorney insisted his client "did not shoot a firearm" and argued that simply being associated with Benson was not enough to prove guilt, the Long Beach Post reported. During Wright's July 2024 sentencing, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James D. Otto said he considered Wright to "have some lesser culpability" than Benson, even as he imposed the decades-long term.
Case leaves unanswered questions for the community
With the state's highest court now refusing to step in, both men remain behind bars for the killing that rattled the Magnolia and Anaheim taco truck lot and the surrounding neighborhood. The outcome underscores how difficult it can be to prosecute gang-related crossfire cases, where multiple shooters, conflicting stories, and split-second chaos make it hard to pinpoint who is ultimately responsible for a single fatal shot.
