Woman receives 3 years’ probation
26-year-old pleaded guilty in 2018 of being accessory after the fact in a murder
A Newhall woman who confessed to being a member of a gang and who testified that her ex-boyfriend — sentenced to 60 years in prison two weeks ago — shot and killed a rival gang member, was herself sentenced Monday to three years’ probation.
Jaqueline Arreola, 26, appeared Monday at San Fernando Superior Court, where she was sentenced, “to three years’ formal probation and time served,” said Ricardo Santiago, spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
In November, Arreola testified at the murder trial of Nicholas Colletta, 21, charged with murder in the July 2017 shooting death of Ivan Solis at Begonias Lane Park in Santa Clarita. He was found guilty of first-degree murder.
On May 9, Colletta was given a sentence of 60 years to life in state prison.
Arreola and Colletta had each been charged with Solis’ murder in a felony complaint filed with Los Angeles Superior Court on Aug. 14, 2017.
Early in 2018, however, she pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of being an accessory after the fact and admitted the shooting was done for the benefit of a gang.
At her preliminary hearing, Arreola testified she saw Colletta pull out a “gray” gun and shoot Solis at Begonias Lane Park on July 11, 2017.
At the close of the preliminary hearing, Judge Hayden Zacky ruled Colletta should stand trial for murder while Arreola was to be sentenced on the accessory charge.
For several months, Arreola saw her scheduled court date for sentencing put off. Her sentencing was expected after Colletta was sentenced two weeks ago.
Ivan Solis was shot as the result of a confrontation between members of rival gangs, according to court testimony from Arreola in November.
Arreola was made a member of the Brown Familia gang in summer 2015, she told the court.
She started dating Colletta, who’s also a Brown Familia gang member, about five or six weeks prior to the shooting, she said.
Her nickname was “Clowdy”; his was “Sicko.”
Solis died of multiple gunshot wounds as the result of a homicide, Lt. David Smith of the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner told The Signal in March.
Solis had been shot seven times: twice in the head, twice in the upper torso, twice in the lower torso and once in the right forearm, according to the coroner’s report.