Judge says family’s assault in Lakewood tells society ‘You aren’t safe anywhere’
A man was sentenced to about 55 years in prison Friday after a jury convicted him of four counts of first-degree assault for shooting at a vehicle in Lakewood occupied by a family returning home after a coastal vacation.
Before deciding on that punishment, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Jennifer Andrews told the defendant, 34-year-old Francisco Z. Cepeda Baldiva, that indiscriminately firing a gun into a car full of people is “horrifying.”
“That says to our society that you aren’t safe anywhere that you go,” Andrews said.
There was no connection between Cepeda Baldiva and the four people he shot at on July 7, 2024. According to Adam Faber, a spokesperson for the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, the shooting is thought to have been a case of mistaken identity.
Faber said the defendant had some sort of dispute with a couple over a parking space in the apartment complex, and when the victims in this case arrived home in a similar car, a black SUV, Cepeda Baldiva opened fire.
Ashley Weiland, who was in the passenger’s seat, said in court that Cepeda Baldiva turned a quiet afternoon into a war zone, and now nowhere feels safe for her.
“I’m always looking over my shoulder,” Weiland said. “Loud sounds make my heart race. I avoid crowds. I avoid joy.”
The shooting occurred shortly after 1 p.m. at an apartment complex southeast of Interstate 5. Weiland, her fiance, her brother and her grandmother were returning home from Westport, where they’d been deep-sea fishing, when they noticed a masked gunman running toward them and firing a handgun.
Numerous bullets hit their Jeep Compass and one pierced the windshield, striking the driver, Rashard Cannon, in the shoulder and shattering the rear window, according to court records. Glass debris sliced Weiland’s 72-year-old grandmother in the face. In court, Weiland said her grandmother was covered in blood and thought she had been shot.
“I thought I was about to watch her die,” Weiland said.
Cannon accelerated in reverse, and Weiland’s brother returned fire from the rear passenger window in self defense. By the time police arrived, Cepeda Baldiva had fled with three accomplices, and the victims had transported themselves to the St. Joseph Medical Center.
The others who were with Cepeda Baldiva don’t appear to have been charged in connection to this case. According to court records, Cepeda Baldiva met up with them in an apartment alcove while gunfire was still going on, and surveillance video showed a different man in a mask pull a high-capacity rifle out of a guitar case. Luckily, prosecutors said, the gun appeared to malfunction.
Cepeda Baldiva was arrested in September 2024, court records show. His trial opened in June, and after four days of testimony and about 10 hours of deliberations, jurors found him guilty on all counts, including first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.
Deputy prosecuting attorney Sunni Ko wrote in presentencing documents that this isn’t the first time the defendant has chased a victim through an apartment complex while firing a gun.
Ko said Cepeda Baldiva was convicted of two counts of second-degree assault after running after a man who had supposedly tried to rob him in an apartment parking lot in 2017. She said the defendant shot at the man, but the bullet struck and injured a woman who was walking through the parking lot with her toddler. Cepeda Baldiva spent over four years in prison for the crime.
In court, Ko asked Andrews to order that Cepeda Baldiva serve his new assault convictions one after the other, which, with firearm-sentencing enhancements, would have amounted to 77 years, six months.
“This person is a danger to the community, and the court should pause before deciding to let this defendant out any one day sooner than the statute and the law allows for him to serve,” Ko said.
Cepeda Baldiva’s defense attorney from the Department of Assigned Counsel, Eric Trujillo, wrote in court filings that Ko’s recommendation would result in a clearly excessive sentence. He asked for a punishment of 51 years, six months.
Andrews ultimately agreed with Trujillo, stating that a sentence of nearly 80 years in prison for a 34-year-old man was beyond the natural lifespan of any human.
When it was Cepeda Baldiva’s turn to speak, he said the case was a “tragedy” for him and claimed he was innocent, casting the prosecution and the jury as biased against him because of his tattoos and skin color.
“The government can lie, the government can kill, the government can do a lot of things,” Cepeda Baldiva said. “But me, I’m just a lost soul in the government’s hand.”
After court adjourned, Weiland expressed frustration over Andrews not giving Cepeda Baldiva prison time for each of his assault convictions. Weiland’s brother, Sergio Esquivel, told The News Tribune he didn’t want the defendant to get out until he was old and infirm so he couldn’t do more harm.
Cepeda Baldiva’s claim of innocence also caught them by surprise. Weiland said he should have acknowledged what he did and apologized for it.
“Be man enough to acknowledge it,” Weiland said. “Nobody died, thankfully, but they could have.”
