Criminal street gang boss sentenced for ordering murder hit
SAN DIEGO — Judgement day has come and gone for a criminal street gang boss who’s been ordered to spend the rest of his life in jail.
On Wednesday, San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan’s office announced Jesus Faraj, 45, was sentenced to life without the possibility parole plus 60 years.
The ruling was made after Faraj was found guilty of ordering an “execution-style murder” of 32-year-old Jimmy Khieu on Super Bowl Sunday in February 2019.
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As explained by the district attorney’s office, Khieu was shot in the head and left for dead in a drainage ditch in the Fox Canyon neighborhood of San Diego.
An investigation lead to the arrest, charging and convictions of Faraj, along with three other defendants who worked for the street gang boss. The attorney’s office said the defendants tracked and then killed the victim after Faraj called for the murder hit from prison.
At the time of the murder, the attorney’s office said Faraj used mobile phones from a prison cell to routinely orchestrate criminal activity in San Diego. This included obtaining and distributing drugs and guns to put onto the streets of what he considered “his neighborhood” in order to “obtain money, power, and control.”
“This defendant is a ruthless criminal who casually ordered a murder from his prison cell,” Stephan said. “This case demonstrates that gang violence has a long and far reach of destruction leaving wounds in our community that last a lifetime. We will never stop fighting to make neighborhoods safe from the scourge of gang violence.”
Co-defendant and shooter Peter Burgos was sentenced to 29 years in prison on Nov. 29, co-defendant Steven Chavez was sentenced to 17 years in prison on July 14, and co-defendant Kristin Zarate was sentenced to 12 years in prison in October 2022.
“This case highlights the commitment to violence and terror that gang leaders show and how much of an impact they have in our community, even while incarcerated,” the district attorney’s office commented regarding the case.
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