Jurors acquit man of charges connected to shooting at Palm Desert mall

Jurors deliberated less than a day before acquitting a Desert Hot Springs man of shooting at four young men standing outside a Palm Desert mall, but they did convict him of a weapons charge.

A Murrieta jury on Tuesday afternoon returned unanimous not guilty verdicts on four counts of attempted murder in the trial of Daniel Joseph Santacroce. The jury additionally acquitted him of being an accessory to a felony.

However, the panel found Santacroce guilty of possession of an illegally modified short-barreled firearm, while Riverside County Superior Court Judge F. Paul Dickerson dismissed a charge of shooting at an occupied vehicle, apparently based on the jurors' findings pertaining to the attempted murder counts.  

The judge scheduled a sentencing hearing for April 18 at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta.

Santacroce is still awaiting disposition of three other cases, stemming from alleged incidents that occurred while he has been jailed pending trial for the attempted murder charges. During that time, he has been charged with assault resulting in great bodily injury, possession of controlled substances in a correctional facility and possession of a weapon in jail. No information was available regarding the charges.   

The defendant is being held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center.   

He was arrested in 2023 following a Riverside County Sheriff's Department investigation into the attack at The Shops in the 72-800 block of Highway 111.

His co-defendants, Allen Curcio Adams Jr. and Alexander Brice Alvarado, both of Adelanto, were charged separately, and both pleaded guilty in October to attempted murder. Each man was sentenced to 16 years in state prison.

According to a trial brief filed by the District Attorney's Office, on the afternoon of Feb. 2, 2023, the defendants were in the mall parking lot with several friends, whose identities were not disclosed, when they encountered members of the West Drive Locos in a 2012 Dodge Caravan. Adams was affiliated with the rival 12th Street Crips, and the parties in the Caravan
zeroed in on him, ``possibly throwing up gang signs,'' the brief said.

The occupants of the Caravan parked next to a JC Penney's and went into the mall, purchasing food and then returning to the vehicle. Prosecutors alleged Santacroce was armed with a .40-caliber ``fully automatic'' Glock pistol that had been modified with a truncated rifle barrel and magazine that held 40 rounds.  

Though Santacroce was not a gang member, prosecutors said the defendant allegedly joined his friends in confronting the occupants of the Caravan. Adams, Alvarado, Santacroce and another party, whose identity was not disclosed, got into a 2016 Lincoln MKZ and drove to where the Caravan was parked. When they spotted the four young men -- identified only as ``A.R.,'' ``M.R.,'' ``P.G.'' and ``G.R.'' -- returning to the Caravan, either Adams or Alvarado yelled at them.

The brief alleged over 30 rounds were discharged from someone firing a gun inside the Lincoln, damaging the Caravan, another car in the line of fire and the exterior wall of the store. No one was hit.

Prosecutors said that as the Lincoln sped out of the parking area, one of the victims who had been targeted opened fire with a 9mm handgun, not hitting the defendants but busting the car's rear window. The retaliatory shooter wasn't identified.

Relying on witnesses' statements and mall security videos, sheriff's detectives were eventually able to piece together what occurred, culminating in the arrests of Adams and Alvarado a month later. Santacroce was arrested in June of that year.

He has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.