LA gangster who shot and paralyzed a 16-year-old girl now works for  California’s Department of Public Safety after Gavin Newsom slashed his 162 year sentence to just eight years

A former gangster who was sentenced to 162 years in prison in 2012 for shooting and paralyzing a 16-year-old girl now works in California’s capital.

Jarad Nava, now 28, works as an assistant at the Ministry of Public Security and is an advocate of prison reform. He was featured in one Los Angeles Times profile Thursday and credits California Democratic Party Governor Gavin Newsom for his early release.

In 2012, while drunk and high, he shot into a car occupied by the relatives of a rival gang member. One of the victims was 16-year-old Yesenia Castro, who was shot in the back.

The bullet severed her spinal cord and she was paralyzed from the waist down.

Nava, who was 17 at the time, rejected a plea deal that would have sentenced him to 30 years in prison.

Jarad Nava (center) was sentenced to 162 years in prison in 2012 for four attempted murders. He shot into a car belonging to women related to a rival gang member and shot one in the back, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down.

The victim, Yesenia Castro, was 16 when she was shot in the back and lost her legs. She wanted Nava to spend at least fifty years in prison

After his trial, he was sentenced to 162 years in prison for four attempted murders.

In the years that followed, he was featured in a prison reform documentary that highlighted his case and the plight of young offenders who the filmmakers felt were unfairly represented.

Yesenia, his victim, was interviewed for the film and said she wanted him to spend 50 years in prison.

‘When they arrested him, I felt relieved. “I don’t want him dead or anything, I just want him to pay a price,” she said.

Despite this, his sentence was commuted to 10 years by Gavin Newsom. He eventually walked free in 2020, eight years after the shooting.

Nava during his trial in 2014. He pleaded not guilty and refused a plea deal that would have put him behind bars for 30 years

During the trial, prosecutors showed Nava pulling up next to the victims’ car and shouting, “You’re going to die today, bitch.”

The car involved in the shooting. Nava told police he was drunk and high and had a vague memory of the quadruple attempted murder

Nava (right) with California Senator Shannon Grove (center). He now works at the Capitol after applying for an internship following his release from prison

Filmmaker Scott Budnick then introduced him to Senate Secretary Erika Contreras, who encouraged him to apply for an internship.

Now he works as an assistant on a committee that decides on prison reform initiatives.

Newsom, excited about how he has turned his life around, told The LA Times that he “cried” when he saw him working “dressed up” in his suit in the state capital.

Governor Gavin Newsom commuted Nava’s sentence to 10 years, saying he was ‘overcharged’

‘I came back and started crying in the office.

‘To read a report on someone, to see a ridiculous overcharge, to consider his age in relation to that crime, to take a chance on a commutation… and then dress him up all over see, so proud that he has a job.

“And I remember that meeting because he kept talking about how he felt responsible for not screwing up.

‘Not for themselves, but for others.’

Nava apologized to his victims during parole hearings, where he said he was “deeply ashamed” of what he did.

He also keeps an apology letter at home that he wrote to her but did not send.

It reads: ‘I’m sorry I tried to kill you on September 29, 2012. … You should never have had to experience being shot, and I thank God you survived.

“While I can never fully atone for my actions, I will try for the rest of my life.”

The doormat outside his apartment reads ‘do not return without a warrant’.

Californians have complained for years about Newsom’s soft-on-crime approach.

A similar view in cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles led to a spike in crime, with prosecutors abandoning cash bail in many violent crimes because they believe it is elitist to poor defendants.