Man, 18, Pleads Guilty to Thermal Shooting, Granted 3 Years Probation

INDIO (CNS) – An 18-year-old man who participated in a vehicle-to- vehicle shooting in Thermal pleaded guilty to felony charges and was immediately sentenced to three years of formal probation.

Landon Harvey Torres of Thermal pleaded guilty Wednesday at the Larson Justice Center to four felony counts of attempted murder and one felony count each of shooting at a vehicle and permitting the discharge of a firearm, according to court records. He additionally pleaded guilty to sentence- enhancing firearm allegations.

“He received a sentence of 36 months of formal probation,” Riverside District Attorney’s office director of communications Amy McKenzie told City News Service. “However, if he violates a term of his probation, he could be sentenced up to five years.”

His co-defendant, 18-year-old Michael Jordan Vega also of Thermal and facing the same charges, is set to appear at the Larson Justice Center June 16 for a preliminary hearing.

Deputies were investigating a shooting in the 63000 block of Landon Lane Oct. 1, 2022, when the department’s dispatch center received a call regarding an exchange of gunfire between a blue Chevrolet pickup and a red four- door sedan in the parking lot of a local market on the 65000 block of Harrison Street, according to Sgt. Porfirio Rubio of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

Deputies located the sedan at Avenue 66 and Van Buren Street after it crashed into a utility pole and its occupants fled on foot, Rubio said. After searching the immediate area deputies located and arrested Vega and Torres both of Thermal, as well as two juvenile males.

Juvenile occupants from both vehicles were arrested in connection to the shootings as well, but their identities were withheld due to their age.

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