A 27-year-old Los Angeles man was sentenced Wednesday, Oct. 16, to 16 years in state prison for the shooting death of a teenager during a cellphone deal gone bad in North Long Beach in 2022, authorities said.
Jose Bustamante Cardenas was convicted by a Long Beach Superior Court jury of voluntary manslaughter following a weeklong trial in August.
Cardenas was originally charged with murder, but the jury came back with the lesser charge, indicating it felt Cardenas was provoked before shooting to death 15-year-old Joshua Simmons in the Carmelitos Housing Project in April 2022.
The two met outside the Via Carmelitos Community Center to discuss Simmons potentially buying Cardenas’ lavender iPhone Max for $500, according to evidence presented in trial.
They were seen on surveillance video, with Simmons at one point holding the phone while Cardenas tried to show him that some of the phone’s features worked. Simmons suddenly tried to run away with the phone and Cardenas was seen pulling a handgun from his left pocket and shooting Simmons from behind as he ran.
Simmons collapsed at the edge of a basketball court and tossed the phone back in Cardenas’ direction, the video showed. Simmons remained there alone for eight minutes before passersby noticed him lying motionless and called 911. Police arrived about 15 minutes after the shooting.
Simmons was struck by six bullets, with two of the wounds to his back deemed “rapidly fatal” by a Medical Examiner’s investigator.
Cardenas grabbed the phone and ran to his car following the shooting. He called 911 from a Bank of America parking lot at Lakewood and Del Amo boulevards to report the shooting, then later met up with Long Beach officers and was arrested without incident at a gas station at Cherry Avenue and Del Amo.
Prosecutor Jacqueline Mac told the jury that Cardenas played “judge, jury and executioner” in shooting Simmons, while Cardenas took the stand to testify that he shot Simmons because he saw one of Simmons’ hands in his waistband multiple times, including when he was running away.
However, the surveillance video contradicted Cardenas’ testimony as Simmons was seen pumping both arms as he ran.
Cardenas also testified that he put the phone up for sale on OfferUp because he and his fiancée had upgraded their devices. Simmons, who didn’t have a phone, responded to the posting using a friend’s phone and asked if Cardenas could deliver the phone to North Long Beach, which Cardenas agreed.
Evidence during trial showed Simmons did not have the money to purchase the phone, nor was he armed.