Man pleads not guilty in fatal area shooting

One man has pleaded not guilty and another two connected to the shooting of Israel Maciel last August are scheduled to be arraigned Friday, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said.

Joshua Anthony Blount, 23, the Compton man charged with killing Maciel and leaving four others injured, pleaded not guilty Monday in Superior Court in Santa Ana to charges of murder, attempted murder and three counts of attempting to dissuade witnesses from testifying, prosecutors said.

Anthony Nicholas Dispensa will face one charge of murder at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach.

David Steven Ortega, 24, was charged as being an accessory to the crime after the fact, allegedly helping dispose of a gun after the shooting, prosecutors said. Ortega was arrested at his home in Tustin on Sept. 28. Dispensa, 21, of Illinois, was arrested on Oct. 13 in the parking lot of a Buena Park motel by officers in the area on an unrelated call.

On June 1, Judge Peter Polos determined that there was enough evidence to bring the case before a jury in Blount’s case, District Attorney’s spokeswoman Farrah Emami said Tuesday.

Blount is accused of killing Maciel in an alley off the 1300 block of West Baker Street in Costa Mesa, prosecutors said.

Witnesses reported seeing a gunman in a Chevrolet Impala fire multiple shots out of the car, hitting Maciel and four friends gathered in an alley outside an apartment complex. Maciel died at the scene.

A reputed gang member, Blount was arrested on Sept. 26 in Hawthorne. He remains in custody at Orange County Jail and is ineligible for bail, district attorneys said.

A second shooting occurred a half mile away just two weeks after Maciel’s death. Police do not believe the two incidents were connected. There have been no homicides in the city of Costa Mesa this year, police said.