A Richmond man and a Fairfield couple have been sentenced to prison for a 2020 freeway ambush that killed Kevin Santisteban as he rode along Interstate 80 near San Pablo Dam Road with two friends. Jorge Vazquez and Tyejuan Shepherd each received 32 years behind bars on manslaughter and attempted murder charges, while Camile McAlister was sentenced to 12 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter.
The sentences, reached through a plea deal with the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office, close out a case that took six years to resolve, according to The Mercury News. Vazquez and Shepherd were sent to state prison on October 12, state records show, while the same report does not specify a sentencing date for McAlister.
Santisteban was shot just after midnight on September 5, 2020, when someone in a passing car opened fire on the vehicle he was riding in near San Pablo Dam Road, according to an earlier mercurynews.com report. Police said the shooter fired at least four times at the car, which carried Santisteban and two of his friends. Santisteban was 20 years old.
How Investigators Built the Case
Vazquez, 24, and McAlister, 23, were a romantic couple living together in Fairfield at the time, according to court records cited in a 2020 report from mercurynews.com. Authorities said they linked the couple to the crime after an automated license plate reader picked up Vazquez’s car near the scene of the shooting. McAlister was allegedly the driver, according to court records, and the couple’s car was reportedly seen near Santisteban’s Richmond home about 30 minutes before the shooting.
Shepherd, 24, of Richmond, was suspected by police of being the gunman. The same mercurynews.com report notes that investigators spoke with informants who said Vazquez blamed someone in Santisteban’s car for the death of a friend, giving him an alleged motive for the attack. Authorities also said Vazquez told a friend that “some s— went down” in San Pablo, and that McAlister was seen cleaning the car around 2 a.m. at the East Tabor Avenue apartment she shared with Vazquez in Fairfield.
Weapon’s Trail Through Solano County
Investigators believed the suspected murder weapon was traded around Solano County. Vazquez allegedly gave the gun to a Vacaville man, who then sold it along with another firearm to a Dixon heroin dealer for $900. That dealer, according to police, later sold the weapon to a man selling drugs out of a Motel 6 in Fairfield.
Shepherd was believed by police to have been the person responsible for actually firing the shots during the homicide, according to cbsnews.com. Court records also indicated that a police informant told authorities at least one person in the car may have been targeted in retaliation for the killing of a man known as Chippy, who was said to have been friends with one of the suspects.
A Case That Spanned Years
The three suspects were charged in 2020, meaning the case took roughly six years to reach its final resolution through this month’s sentencing. An online fundraiser for Santisteban’s family described him as a loving son, brother, grandson, and friend who would be greatly missed.
With the sentencing now complete, all three defendants have been transferred to state prison to begin serving their terms for a fatal freeway shooting that may have been retaliation and took years to fully untangle.
