Two plead guilty in shooting death

Kim Smith

Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2002 | 9:52 a.m.

Two teenagers arrested in July in connection with the death of a man who was shot during what was supposed to be a fistfight have entered plea agreements.

Nicolas Maestas, 18, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and will receive a 10-year to life sentence on Dec. 18, said Deputy Special Public Defender Gloria Navarro.

Raymond Lane, 17, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and battery with use of a deadly weapon. It will be up to District Judge Donald Mosley to decide if Lane should serve sentences of one to 10 years and two to 10 years at the same time or consecutively.

According to police, Jaime Sotelo Jr., 20, and two friends went to Eastminister Court near Major Avenue late in the evening of July 7 to meet Lane for a fight over a confrontation days earlier.

Lane had called Sotelo, saying he wanted to "have this out," meaning he wanted to fight, according to a Henderson Police arrest report.

Police said Lane told them he and Maestas brought a borrowed assault rifle to the fight to frighten Sotelo, but Maestas grabbed the gun and shot Sotelo when he disregarded warning shots and kept approaching them.

Police said the fight was over Sotelo's pregnant girlfriend. They said Lane was a friend of her former boyfriend and that Sotelo was upset the former boyfriend kept calling her.