SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- A Puerto Rican man was sentenced to life in prison for the 2009 Puerto Rican nightclub shooting in which eight people died, the U.S. Justice Department said.
Alexis Candelario-Santana, 42, a drug gang leader, was sentenced Wednesday after he and co-defendant David Oquendo-Rivas were convicted by a federal jury in what has become known as "La Tombola Massacre," the Justice Department said in a release.
Nineteen others were injured in the mass shooting.
"The horrifying massacre at La Tombola came just nine months after Candelario-Santana's release from prison for committing 12 murders. During his rampage, he brutally killed or injured dozens of other innocent victims, including children and the elderly," Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman said. "Our thoughts are with the victims and their families, and we hope that today's life sentence brings some measure of comfort to them."
Court documents indicate that when Candelario-Santana and other members his gang opened fire on people outside and inside the nightclub, Candelario-Santana was heard to yell, "no one gets out alive." When firing on people inside. Court documents indicated the nightclub's owner marginalized Candelario-Santana in the drug gang's operations while Candelario-Santana was serving 12 years in prison for a dozen killings.
Oquendo-Rivas will be sentenced Sept. 20, 2013.
