SANTA ROSA (BCN)--A Sonoma County jury has acquitted Christopher Mancinas of the  alleged gang-related drive-by murder of Vallejo musician Dewey Tucker on  Interstate Highway 80 in the East Bay in 2010.

     

He also was acquitted of conspiracy to commit murder and shooting  into an occupied vehicle, Deputy District Attorney Robert Waner said.

     

The jury convicted Mancinas of being a member of a criminal street  gang, Waner said Monday. 

     

Mancinas, 30, of Petaluma, was the first of four defendants to be  tried for the murder of Tucker, 24, who was shot as he drove his Nissan on  Interstate Highway 80 near the Carquinez Bridge on Jan. 12, 2010.

     

Tucker had just left his Vallejo apartment and was driving in his  Nissan to band practice in the East Bay. 

     

During his testimony, Mancinas admitted to being at Tucker's  apartment complex that night with three Sureno gang members, but said he was  there to try to talk to a rival Sureno gang member who also lived at the  complex about reaching a peace agreement between rival sects of the gang.

     

Defendant Raul Vega, now 20, of Santa Rosa, is suspected of being  the shooter. Tucker was shot once in the head by a passenger in a Honda that  pulled up alongside his Nissan. He died at the scene. 

     

Vega and another defendant, Javier Carreon-Lopez, 21, the driver  of the Honda allegedly believed a rival gang member was driving the Nissan,  prosecutors said.

     

Mancinas testified he was no longer active in the Sureno gang and  was acting as a peacemaker between rival sects of the gang. The prosecution  argued Mancinas was still in the gang and was selling narcotics.

     

The jury foreman told Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Dana  Simonds late this morning it was deadlocked 11-1 but agreed to resume  deliberations after lunch. Monday was their fourth day of deliberations.

 

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