By Ari Burack<\/strong><\/p>\n June 28, 2008<\/p>\n A San Francisco man was sentenced Friday to 15 years to life in prison for the 2006 daylight shooting, as a juvenile, of another man who he claims had previously threatened his own life.<\/p>\n Daniel Elizalde, now 20, was 17 years old at the time he and some of his friends were driving in San Francisco’s Excelsior district, when they spotted Karl Bartholome crossing the street with his girlfriend and 5-year-old nephew, on April 30, 2006.<\/p>\n According to prosecutors, Elizalde got out of the car and exchanged words with Bartholome, and then shot at him twice, hitting him once the head. Bartholome, 19, also of San Francisco, was pronounced dead at San Francisco General Hospital.<\/p>\n Elizalde was arrested at his home the next day and was charged as an adult in the case.<\/p>\n In April of this year, Elizalde pleaded guilty in San Francisco Superior Court to second degree murder, the mandatory sentence for which is 15 years to life, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n A repentant-sounding Elizalde this afternoon told members of Bartholome’s family, and his own family, in the courtroom that he was a different man and took full responsibility for his actions.<\/p>\n “I was lost at that point of my life,” Elizalde said, adding that he was “easily influenced and hanging out with the wrong group of people.”<\/p>\n “The streets turned me into something I’m not,” he said.<\/p>\n John Shields, a psychologist for the defense, testified Friday that he found Elizalde had “some indications” of substance abuse, anti-social thinking, and post-traumatic stress from earlier assaults against him.<\/p>\n Shields said Elizalde told him that one of those previous assaults had come from Bartholome, who had also threatened his life, he said. Shields also said Elizalde told him that on the day of the shooting, he had consumed alcohol and taken marijuana and Ecstasy.<\/p>\n “I can only pray and hope for a second chance in life,” Elizalde said.<\/p>\n “Two years ago… you changed all our lives,” Bartholome’s cousin Dorothy Alonzo told Elizalde. “Karl was my best friend.”<\/p>\n “I can speak to my cousin, but I don’t get an answer,” she lamented. Looking at Elizalde and his family, she added, “They can speak to you and get an answer.”<\/p>\n In sentencing Elizalde to 15 years to life, Judge Robert Dondero described the shooting as “vigilante-style activity” that “is why we have a homicide rate in this community that is so outrageous.”<\/p>\n San Francisco’s 2008 homicide tally now stands at 52, according to police statistics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Ari Burack June 28, 2008 A San Francisco man was sentenced Friday to 15 years to life in prison for the 2006 daylight shooting, as a juvenile, of another man who he claims had…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6413,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n