Jesse Villanueva, 28, was shot and killed on July 30, 2018, near Shaw and Marks Avenues in northwest Fresno. He and 17-year-old Ben Romero were killed outside an apartment complex; a 13-year-old boy was wounded in the leg and survived.

Christopher Lerone Sanders, then 18, was charged by the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder alleging he intentionally fired the weapon that killed Villanueva and Romero and wounded the surviving child. Sanders initially admitted to the killings and had agreed to a no contest plea to voluntary manslaughter and assault with a firearm that would have resulted in an 18-year sentence, but he later retracted the admission at a November 2021 hearing and the judge threw out the plea. Victims’ family members, including Jesse’s widow Corinne Villanueva, spoke in court about the impact of his death.

The judge’s decision sent the case toward trial, where Sanders faces the possibility of a life sentence if convicted. Does anyone have information about the shooting, the victims, or what happened that night?