Defendant Gets 20 to Life for Brutal Attack : Courts: David Oliva, 21, convicted of shooting and stabbing a fellow teen in 1996, declares innocence at sentence hearing.

A 21-year-old Oxnard man must serve 20 years to life in prison for luring a teenage rival to an isolated road near Oxnard, then repeatedly shooting and stabbing him, a Ventura County judge ruled Tuesday.

Calling the crime especially vicious, Superior Court Judge Brian J. Back handed down the sentence after a hearing in which the defendant, David Oliva, yelled at the victim’s sister and told the judge he was innocent.

“I feel for her brother,” Oliva said. “But I’m not going to admit to something I didn’t do.”

Oliva was found guilty of premeditated attempted murder on June 17. Although the defense maintained that someone else shot and stabbed Oxnard teen Frank Olivas, a jury concluded that Oliva was the culprit.

Olivas was shot three times on Sept. 26, 1996, and stabbed repeatedly after cruising the Oxnard Plain and smoking marijuana with three acquaintances, including the defendant.

According to trial testimony, the group stopped on a dark stretch of Wood Road near Oxnard so that Olivas could relieve himself. Olivas was then shot. During the trial, prosecutors suggested that the motive for the attack was jealousy over a woman.

Olivas testified that after he was hit with several bullets, Oliva leaned over him and with a knife stabbed him repeatedly in the head, neck and chest.

After the defendant drove away, Olivas managed to stagger 200 yards toward a nearby house. An off-duty California Highway Patrol officer spotted the slumped figure on the side of the road and called 911 from a pay phone.

Olivas was not present during the sentencing hearing Tuesday, but his sister, Maria Moreno, told the judge that her brother’s life has been devastated by the attack.

“I want you to know there was a 16-year-old kid who was good, who never looked behind his back, who is now full of hate,” Moreno said. “He doesn’t talk about that day.”

Moreno urged Back to impose a harsh sentence. At one point during her statement, the defendant yelled at her from the defense table, saying she was lying.

“David deserves no leniency, no sympathy,” she said. “He left [my brother] like a dog on a road to die.”

The defendant’s mother, Rita Oliva, told the judge her son was a decent individual who deserved mercy. She said the situation has been heartbreaking for her family.

Before issuing the sentence, Back said the law requires that the defendant serve life in prison with the possibility of parole for premeditated attempted murder.

But the judge said he had more discretion on how Oliva should be sentenced, because Oliva used a gun and caused great bodily injury--special allegations tacked on to the attempted murder charge when the case was filed.

Under 1996 California law, the gun allegation gives judges discretion to add three, four or 10 years to a sentence depending on the circumstances of the crime. The other allegation of great bodily injury allows three more years to be added to a prison sentence.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Bill Haney argued in favor of the maximum 10-year enhancement, saying the crime was premeditated and unusually cruel. Defense attorney James Farley said four years was the “proper sentence.”

Back sided with the prosecution, agreeing that Oliva’s actions were so vicious that they outweighed any mitigating factors. He ordered Oliva to serve 13 years for the two enhancements in addition to the life prison term.

Outside the courtroom, Haney said Oliva would be eligible for parole in 2019.