Gang Member Gets 19 Years in Slaying

A 20-year-old North Hollywood gang member who killed one man and wounded another when he shot at a group of people attending a birthday party was sentenced Wednesday to 19 years and four months in state prison.

San Fernando Superior Court Judge Howard Schwab sentenced Stephen V. White to the maximum sentence possible for charges stemming from the shooting death of Jose Maldonado, 22, Deputy Dist. Atty. Karen L. Parsons said.

Maldonado was at a birthday party in the 7300 block of Vineland Avenue in Sun Valley on Sept. 18, 1988, when a car carrying White and other gang members drove by.

Maldonado and the party-goers were not gang members but the house is near an area where members of a rival gang hang out, Parsons said.

White, who was in high school at the time of the incident, fired one shot from a sawed-off rifle, killing Maldonado and wounding another man with the same bullet, Parsons said.

White had initially been charged with murder and faced a maximum sentence of 33 years and four months to life in prison had be been convicted of the charges, Parsons said. He entered a no contest plea to the charge of voluntary manslaughter last month.

The driver of the car, Chad Algarin, pleaded guilty last year to being an accessory after the fact and is expected to be sentenced July 9, Parsons said.