Seventeen-year-old Briana Soto was walking home from her job at McDonald’s last March when she was shot and killed just steps from her Long Beach home. Now, her killer will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
On Thursday, Troy Lamar Fox, 34, received a sentence of 358 years to life for the first-degree murder of Soto and the attempted murder of four others in a separate shooting two weeks later.
Fox shot the high school senior as she approached her home at 11th Street and Lewis Avenue around 8:30 p.m. on March 26, 2024. She died in a hospital three days later, prosecutors said.
Then, on April 9, Fox exited a car holding a rifle and opened fire on another vehicle carrying four minors near Pine Avenue and 14th Street in Long Beach, prosecutors said. The minors survived the attack, but the shooting resulted in attempted murder charges against Fox.
Six months after Soto was attacked, Fox was arrested in connection to her killing. Authorities said they pursued DNA and video and cellphone evidence to identify Fox, who they discovered was already in Los Angeles County sheriff’s custody on an unrelated weapons violation.
Outside a court hearing last October, Soto’s mother, Ana, said she wanted one thing, “that justice be done for her, that is what I ask,” according to reporting from the Long Beach Post.
Fox has a long criminal record. He was convicted of making criminal threats in 2013; was convicted for grand theft in 2015, 2017 and 2018; and was convicted of commercial burglary in 2019, according to court records.
In March, a jury found Fox guilty of one county of murder, four counts of attempted murder, and two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
“Briana Soto had her whole life ahead of her — she was getting ready for her prom, her 18th birthday, and graduation,” L.A. County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said in a statement Thursday. “Today’s sentence ensures the person who stole her future will never be free to harm another innocent person. While this punishment cannot undo the pain he caused, it is a step toward justice for Briana, her loved ones and our community.”
