Gardena man charged in fatal shooting

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A 22-year-old Gardena man is facing life without the possibility of parole if convicted in the shooting death of a man July 16 in Hawthorne, prosecutors said.

Donte Bay McNeil was charged in the fatal car-to-car shooting of Azaam Stallsworth, 31, who was the new boyfriend of McNeil’s ex-girlfriend. McNeil, who was to be arraigned Friday at the Airport Courthouse faces one count of murder with the special allegation of lying in wait. Additionally, he faces the allegation of using a gun.

A 22-year-old Gardena man is facing life without the possibility of parole if convicted in the shooting death of a man July 16 in Hawthorne, prosecutors said.

Donte Bay McNeil was charged in the fatal car-to-car shooting of Azaam Stallsworth, 31, who was the new boyfriend of McNeil’s ex-girlfriend. McNeil, who was to be arraigned Friday at the Airport Courthouse faces one count of murder with the special allegation of lying in wait. Additionally, he faces the allegation of using a gun.

McNeil allegedly waited in his car the morning of July 16 in an alley, until Stallsworth and the girlfriend returned to her home near 126th Street and Prairie Avenue, prosecutors said.

McNeil then drove slowly toward Stallsworth’s vehicle, and when the cars were side by side, McNeil fired a shot at the victim, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies as reported by the Daily Breeze.

Stallsworth’s car then moved forward and crashed into a wrought iron fence, deputies said.

The girlfriend, who was in the passenger seat at the time of the shooting, was not reported injured.

Prosecutors will decide later whether to pursue the death penalty, although on that same day a federal judge declared California’s death penalty as unconstitutional, the Breeze reported.