Left: Demarcus Jaime Vega (Fresno County Jail). Right: Lorenzo Perez (Fresno police).
A California man has been sentenced to spend at least 25 years in prison for the daylight killing of a beloved Fresno food vendor after posing as a customer.
Demarcus Jaime Vega, 23, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of 45-year-old Lorenzo Perez, according to the Fresno County District Attorney”s Office. On Thursday, a judge sentenced Vega to 25 years to life behind bars.
Vega was 18 when the violence unfolded on March 21, 2021, in the area of South Price and East Alta avenues. Prosecutors said he was riding a scooter when he saw Perez, who was traveling by bicycle while pulling his food cart. When Vega flagged him down, Perez stopped.
The brief encounter appeared at first to be an ordinary exchange between a vendor and a customer. Vega acted as though he intended to order food, prosecutors said. Instead, he pulled a gun from his pocket and shot Perez in the head, then searched through Perez’s pockets before running away.
Emergency crews found Perez on the ground and rushed him to a hospital, where he later died. Investigators identified Vega as the suspect after interviewing witnesses and reviewing surveillance video. He was arrested four days after the shooting. Authorities said robbery was the motive.
Perez was a familiar and cherished food vendor who “served families across southeast Fresno,” prosecutors said. His oldest son remembered him as “a proud, hardworking man” whose family was his “pride and joy.”
“Demarcus Jaime Vega didn’t just end the life of a human that day, he took the rest of our lives with him and altered them,” Perez’s son said.
Prosecutors told the Fresno Bee that Vega suffers from some intellectual disabilities, which sparked a delay in the case as the defendant underwent a mental health evaluation.
His attorney Jamil Nushwat said in an interview with the newspaper that he believed his client received a fair sentence.
“I can honestly say that he has shown a significant amount of remorse,” Nushwat said. “And he’s shown me a significant amount of growth. He is interested in rehabilitation.”
