Flores had claimed self-defense, and that Reeves had him in a chokehold during the melee, but it was found that Flores fired on Reeves from a standing position. The prosecutor said Flores fired after his nose was bloodied in the fight and he felt humiliated in front of other gang members.
Two people suspected of being Santa Paula gang members were previously accused of first-degree murder in Reeves’ death, but acquitted in 2005. One later pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a separate assault on the night of the killing and was sentenced to eight years in prison; he was released about four years later.
The murder of Sam, a Santa Paula High School student, shook the community and its tight-knit population of teenagers, who held a massive candlelight vigil after his death. He was a talented skateboarder and musician that played with a band. A bench placed by Sam’s family near his Santa Paula Cemetery burial plot is often occupied by the teen’s wide circle of friends.
The family continued their quest for justice up to the day Flores was sentenced. “We would never stop until there was justice, and now it’s been done,” said Reeves, who noted the sentencing “slammed the door shut on Joe Flores... we all deserve a life now. The family,” Samuel’s mother Diane and his older brothers, “have been in this horrible dark place for so long.... Now that it’s over,” said Reeves, “we pray that we can pull ourselves out of that place.”
