CALDWELL, Idaho — A member of the Sureno gang was sentenced last week to prison for stabbing and seriously injuring another man.
Saturnino Garcia IV, 37, of Nampa, was charged with aggravated battery in the February 2021 attack, as well as violating his probation in prior convictions of riot and witness intimidation.
Judge Brent L. Whiting handed down a sentence of 21 years behind bars.
According to prosecutors, the victim was sitting in the passenger seat of his car when Garcia began yelling at him from the backseat. The men got into a physical fight and Garcia stabbed him repeatedly before getting out of the car and running away.
Before Garcia left the scene, he told the victim "he would finish the hit or have him join his gang," according to investigators. The defendant then left Idaho and traveled to Arizona, where he was arrested on a nationwide warrant in September.
Garcia was extradited back to Idaho and pleaded guilty to the felony charge, as well as misdemeanor counts of resisting or obstructing and disorderly conduct, in January.
"This type of gang violence has no place in Canyon County," said Prosecutor Bryan Taylor. "The sentence handed down by the judge should send a message that gang violence of any type will not be tolerated, and those who take part in it will be held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
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