Marco Antonio Topete was sentenced to death Wednesday for the murder with special circumstances of Yolo County Sheriff’s Deputy Jose “Tony” Diaz. The Yolo County jury that convicted Topete read its verdict aloud before Judge Paul K. Richardson at a District 3 courthouse.
In October, Jurors sentenced 39-year-old Topete for first-degree murder in the June 2008 death of the officer on a dirt road outside the town of Dunnigan. They also ruled he shot Diaz as an active gang member, to avoid arrest and while lying in wait.
– Angela Swartz
