American Gets 46 Years for Baja Sniper Attack

TIJUANA —  An American convicted of a sniper attack that killed another U.S. citizen on a coastal highway in Baja California has been sentenced to more than 46 years in prison, Mexican authorities said Tuesday.

Dennis Albert A. Macchione, 34, of Buena Park was convicted by a judge of murder in the shooting of Debra Lynn Campos, 46, of Brawley, the Baja California state attorney general’s office said in a news release.

The shooting occurred July 2, 1999, on Baja’s scenic Highway 1 about 40 miles south of the U.S. border during the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

Campos was riding between two friends in the front of a pickup returning from a three-day fishing trip in the port city of Ensenada, Mexico, when a bullet fired from hills above the highway pierced the windshield and struck her in the chest.

Mexican police later arrested Macchione as he walked along the highway. Authorities said he was dressed in military fatigues and led them to a rifle, scope and duffel bag that he had hidden in the hills. It also contained an olive green, Army jacket and two ski masks.

Macchione, in a jailhouse interview with Associated Press shortly after his arrest, insisted he was innocent and blamed the killing on a drunk friend who fired at motorists as they camped together in Baja. He said he only fired the rifle once, in the air, and that his friend fled back to the United States in their car.

Mexican investigators determined that there was no one else involved in the shooting, according to the release from the state attorney general’s office.

Macchione, who has been in custody since his arrest, received a sentence of 46 years and three months in prison, the release said.