‘I didn’t mean to kill anybody,’ man who shot 7-year-old girl tells parole board

SALT LAKE CITY — A man who was 16 when his wayward shot killed a 7-year-old girl playing in her yard during a gang-related drive-by shooting 15 years ago is seeking parole.

Gabriel Alejandro Alvarez, now 32, went before the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole on Tuesday for the first time. Alvarez was sentenced to 16 years to life in 2009 after being convicted of murder in the death of 7-year-old Maria Menchaca. Because of recent changes to state rules and criminal justice reforms regarding people who are under the age of 18 when they commit their crimes, Alvarez was given a parole hearing Tuesday.

On July 6, 2008, Maria Del Carmen Menchaca, 7, was playing in the front yard of her house on the corner of 800 West and Fremont Avenue (1100 West) when an SUV drove by and a shot was fired, hitting and killing Maria.

The tragic incident sparked an outcry among city and community leaders to do something about Salt Lake City’s gang problem.

The three people in the vehicle — Alvarez, Frank Puga Benavidez, 20, and Mae Goodman Johnson, 16, were all arrested and later charged.

During his parole hearing on Tuesday, Alvarez told the board how he was 14 when he got involved with gangs, despite the warnings from his family and friends.

“Thought I knew better. Thought I knew it all,” he said.

By 10th grade, Alvarez had dropped out of school.

On the day of the shooting, Alvarez said Benavidez had gotten into an argument with another person who lived at Maria’s house. Benavidez then picked up Alvarez and Johnson. Even though Alvarez claims there really was “no plan” that day, he brought a gun with him.

“Dumb mistake that I made,” he told the board when asked why he took a gun after being picked up.

The group rounded the street corner near Maria’s house and Alvarez says they immediately saw the person Benavidez was having a dispute with.

“Since I had the gun, I just held it out the window and shot once,” Alvarez said.

But Alvarez says it wasn’t until 30 minutes later that the group learned Maria was the one who had been stuck. During his hearing on Tuesday, he said he wasn’t thinking at the time about what could happen if you shoot a gun at somebody.

“Shooting at people, that’s kind of what happens. But none of those consequences, killing people, didn’t go through my mind,” he tried to explain. “If you’re shooting at somebody, that’s kind of what’s expected (that the person will be killed), but none of those consequences were going through my mind at the time.”

Although no members of Maria’s family attended Tuesday’s hearing, Alvarez was asked what he would say to them if they were there.

“I never meant to do what I did. I just hope they can forgive one day,” he said. “They’ll never know how much I’ve changed from that day.

“I didn’t mean to kill anybody,” he continued. “Never in my life would I mean to do something like that to a kid.”

Alvarez claims he dropped out of gangs when he arrived at prison. He spent his first 14½ years in maximum security, he said. But more recently he’s been able to take more classes to better himself should he be granted parole. He hasn’t had a disciplinary violation since 2019, and the ones before that were for minor offenses, the board noted. Today, his “risk assessment” score, as determined by corrections officials, has dropped dramatically.

“I stay out of trouble,” he said. “I try to get involved in as many classes as I can.”

There is also an immigration detainer on Alvarez, meaning once he is released from prison he expects he will be deported to Mexico.

The board is expected to vote on whether to grant parole in a few weeks.

Johnson had her first parole hearing in 2015. A parole hearing for Benavidez, which is expected to happen in about 2030, has not been scheduled yet. After his murder conviction, Benavidez was also linked to a gang-related kidnapping and rape in 2006 and charged again in 2018. That case was still pending as of Tuesday.