Gunman gets 27 years for car-to-car shooting in Burbank
A Sylmar man has pleaded no contest in the shooting of an occupied vehicle on a Burbank freeway overpass in 2016.
Joseph “Blanco” Lupercio, 25, was sentenced to 27 years in prison late last month for a car-to-car shooting last year, according to a statement released on Friday by the Burbank Police Department.
On the night of Feb. 8, 2016, Lupercio was a passenger in a vehicle driven by his girlfriend, 26-year-old Sarah Sullivan, when the two encountered a car on the Burbank Boulevard overpass that had Sullivan’s ex-boyfriend as a passenger.
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Lupercio then opened fire at the car, but struck the vehicle’s driver instead of the ex-boyfriend, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
The driver, identified as Rane Melkom in court documents, drove away from the scene, and someone in the car subsequently took the wheel. The car ended up in the 1600 block of Grismer Avenue, where its occupants called for help.
Melkom survived the shooting, according to Burbank Police Sgt. Derek Green.
Meanwhile, Lupercio and Sullivan fled from the scene, but were arrested the next morning in Sylmar. Lupercio reportedly refused to surrender himself to police and attempted to flee from the back of his home before being taken into custody.
He was initially charged with attempted murder, while Sullivan was charged with being an accessory after the fact. The two pleaded not guilty at the time.
Sullivan eventually pleaded no contest to being an accessory in September 2016 and was sentenced to three years of probation, according to court records.
Twitter: @Andy_Truc
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