Judge lowers boom, gives Sok life for murder

SALEM – Reputed Bloods gang member Bonrad Sok was sentenced to life in state prison Wednesday for the gang-related shooting death of a Lynn man in 2007.Sok, 19, formerly of 103 Warren St., was found guilty on Tuesday in Salem Superior Court for the second-degree murder of 18-year-old Cristian Vargas-Martinez outside the Golden Lake Restaurant at 38 Bennett St. on Nov. 1, 2007.Sok showed no emotion as he was sentenced to serve life in state prison, with eligibility for parole after 15 years. He will be at least 34 years old if paroled and would be on lifetime parole. He has already served 559 days awaiting trial on the case.Judge David A. Lowy handed down the mandated punishment on Wednesday morning.Sok, who was just 17 years old at the time of the incident, went on trial on a charge of murder in the first degree, which carries a life sentence with no parole, but jurors returned the lesser verdict of second-degree against Sok.Judy Choeun, 19, the girlfriend who was with Vargas-Martinez on the night of the shooting, expressed her feelings to Lowy saying, “The case is over but there will never be a happy (ever) after for me. Cristian’s family and friends will never see him again. The defendant (Sok) took away the father of my child. I truly hope he will realize all the suffering he has caused.”Defense lawyer James Krasnoo asked Lowy to consider a lesser verdict of manslaughter, but the judge declined. Krasnoo also argued that he felt the jurors might had been “rushed” into their decision after learning they might be sequestered for the night, but Lowy assured him that they had sent down a note prior to being told that, informing the court they were “making substantial progress” and needed a little more time.In asking the judge to impose the mandatory punishment, Assistant District Attorney James P. Gubitose said “gang violence is decimating the country and parts of Lynn.”He went on to say it has changed the lives of law-abiding citizens. The defendant’s acts that day were “cruel, thoughtless and pointless,” he said. “The verdict is just and the sentence that goes along with the verdict is just.”Sok and his alleged co-conspirator, Kevin Keo, are members of the Bloods gang, who shot Vargas-Martinez, a Crips gang member, as a joint-venture in what authorities say was gang-related retaliation for a prior incident when Keo was apparently slashed with a machete on his hand and wrist by the Crips.Evidence during the trial established that when Sok saw Vargas-Martinez at the restaurant that day, he telephoned Keo and another man, telling them that the man with the machete was at the restaurant.Keo, 18, left his home in Lynn at 21 Morris St., and went to the restaurant apparently armed with a .22 caliber handgun, which authorities say he passed onto Sok who fired a single bullet in the chest of Vargas-Martinez as he was leaving the restaurant outside.Keo still did not have the full use of his hand at that time due to the injury.Although no one could actually identify Sok as the shooter, Gubitose established enough evidence to convince the jury that it probably was Sok who fired the bullet through witness testimony and a statement Sok made to female friends following the incident.”He (Sok) set the whole thing in motion,” Gubitose told jurors in his closing.The weapon used in the shooting was never recovered, but when authorities searched Keo’s home they found a box of .22 caliber ammunition shells, identical to the bullet that killed Vargas-Martinez. They also seized an assault weapon with ammunition from his home.Krasnoo argued before the jury that it was Keo who was the shooter and that he did it alone, but the jury, comprised of five women and seven men, thought otherwise.The case against Keo will be tried at another time. The two men were severed from being tried together during a preliminary trial motion. Keo is due back in court on May 28 for motions. He remains held without bail at the Middleton Jail.