Winters man, sentenced to 18 years for 2019 shootings

A 19-year-old Winters man was sent to state prison for nearly two decades Monday after he pled no-contest and agreed to a sentencing deal in connection to two shootings and thefts in 2019 in rural north Vacaville.

During the brief proceedings in her courtroom, Judge Stephanie Grogan Jones enumerated the charges and punishments for four counts, telling Branden Lee Lerma that he will serve 18 years, pay $3,000 in restitution, and be subject to five years on probation when released from prison. She then asked him if he understood the sentence.

Shackled and clad in a striped jail jumpsuit, Lerma, nodded his head in agreement. He was represented by defense attorney Stephen Redner.

Shortly afterward, as a bailiff escorted him from the Fairfield courtroom and back to jail, Lerma turned around and — looking into the public gallery, where his co-defendant in the case, Amit Kaur Chhoker, of Woodland, also 19, sat with a relative — smiled.

Out of custody on $110,000 bail, Chhoker, who entered a no-contest plea on Nov. 4, is scheduled to be sentenced to four years in prison and three years of supervised parole on March 18. She is represented by Sacramentobased attorney Johnny Lewis Griffin.

Both were charged in connection with two shootings and thefts, on April 23 and June 18 near Putah Creek Road in the Lake Solano area.

Lerma entered his nocontest plea on Jan. 17, just as his preliminary hearing was about to begin. He pleaded to two counts of robbery and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and an enhancement: use of a firearm.

At his initial arraignment on June 25, Lerma pleaded not guilty to all the charges and was remanded to Solano County Jail, with bail set at $850,000.

A third suspect, a 17-year-old juvenile at the time, also was charged but his name has not been released because of his age. The disposition of his case is unknown.