Alexander Young, 33, Pleads Guilty to Assault Stemming from Mountain View Shotgun Slaying

Police investigating the shooting death of Victor Armando Hernandez in an alley off Florence Lane in Mountain View. Photo via OnSceneTV.

One of three men who was charged in a man’s shooting death in Mountain View last year pleaded guilty Wednesday to pistol-whipping another man who apparently narrowly survived the same fate.

Alexander Young, 33, was previously charged with the Feb. 19, 2020, murder of 29-year-old Victor Armando Hernandez. Following his plea Wednesday to assault with a firearm, the murder charge was dismissed.

Young is slated to be sentenced next month to nearly nine years in state prison.

The criminal complaint alleges Young and co-defendant Sergio Bueno, 35, went to a property on Florence Lane while armed, at which point Young pistol-whipped one man and Bueno shot Hernandez in the head with a shotgun blast. Bueno remains at large.

Responding officers found Hernandez mortally wounded. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to San Diego police.

It is unclear what led to Hernandez being shot, but the criminal complaint alleges Bueno and co-defendant Richard Verdugo, 32, planned to murder the man that Young pistol-whipped.

Verdugo, who was incarcerated at Centinela State Prison at the time, allegedly spoke with Bueno several times in the weeks leading up to Feb. 19 about killing that man for undisclosed reasons.

Young was arrested last October.

Verdugo, who is charged with murder and conspiracy, is now in custody in a San Diego County jail and is due for a preliminary hearing in December.