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Murder suspect accused in several drive-by shootings months after homicide

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Julian Prieb
Julian Prieb

A man awaiting trial in the 2022 homicide of an sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Academy student is accused in several other drive-by shootings in the months that followed.

Julian Prieb, 20, is charged with seven counts each of shooting from a motor vehicle and unlawful carrying of a handgun by a person under 19, and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Prieb, who was 18 at the time of the alleged shootings, is currently awaiting trial in the December 2022 death of 18-year-old Jada Gonzales. He has been behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center in that case since November 2023.

Prieb was one of four teens charged in connection with Gonzales鈥 death.

Isaiah Espinosa was sentenced to 29 years in prison in Gonzales鈥 death, and Cruz Medina pleaded guilty in a deal offered by prosecutors. Jesse Parra, like Prieb, is awaiting trial.

Police say the group were kicked out of a party and then shot up the home, striking Gonzales.

Unlike Medina and Espinosa, Prieb wasn鈥檛 charged and arrested in Gonzales鈥 death until almost a year later. In the months between, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, Prieb committed seven other drive-by shootings between May and June 2023. Nobody was injured in the shootings. Prieb鈥檚 family declined to comment.

In a pretrial detention motion, prosecutors said Prieb 鈥渨as associated with other actors in their gunplay... routinely shooting from a motor vehicle 鈥 extremely dangerous behavior.鈥

鈥淭he timeline, if drawn out long enough, will result in someone being wounded or killed,鈥 according to the motion. 鈥淭he inference in his situation being that (Prieb) was out for the excitement of it.鈥

While investigating the June 2023 death of Adrian Porras, 18, police identified Prieb as being involved in several drive-by shootings, according to the complaint. Police said Prieb was 鈥渆liminated as being a suspect鈥 in Porras鈥 death but was found to be involved in other shootings with Jorge Luevano and Carlos Portillo, the suspects in Porras鈥 slaying.

On May 31, 2023, a man reported his car being shot up and Prieb, 鈥渃laims responsibility鈥 for the incident on social media, according to the complaint. Over the next few weeks, six other shootings played out, one at a house party and others in other areas around sa国际传媒官网网页入口.

Police said a search of cellphone records showed Prieb in the area during each shooting, and messages indicating he was involved in some way or another. The bullet casings found at the scene of each shooting matched casings found at the scene of Porras鈥 death.