Ricardo Polanco, Arthur Garcia and two other men participated in a plot to kill Frankie Buelna, 61, also a member of the Mexican Mafia

Ricardo Polanco, Arthur Garcia and two other men participated in a plot to kill Frankie Buelna, 61, also a member of the Mexican Mafia, prosecutors said.
Buelna was collecting gang "taxes" in Pomona without authorization from the gang, said Deputy District Attorney Todd Hicks, who prosecuted the case. Polanco, 26, was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison Friday. Garcia, 37, was sentenced to 55 years to life. Both men's sentences were doubled because they had prior strike convictions, Hicks said. Buelna was shot and killed in November at Characters Sports Bar in Pomona. That case is unsolved, and it remains unclear whether Buelna's killing was a hit ordered by the Mexican Mafia, Hicks said. Julio Ponce Felix Jr., 35, was scheduled to be sentenced on his conspiracy conviction Friday but was unable to appear in court because he recently had open-heart surgery. Felix will next appear in court Sept. 24. A trial for Darryl Castrejon, 48, is scheduled for Oct. 9, Hicks said.Polanco was enlisted as the triggerman in the plot to kill Buelna by the other men charged in connection with the conspiracy, Hicks said. Police listened in on cell phone conversations between the men as they planned the murder, and arrested Polanco hours before he planned to shoot Buelna on a residential Pomona street, Hicks said. Polanco sat silently Friday afternoon as his sentence was read by Judge Robert Martinez, who said from the bench that he also served as the judge when Polanco was convicted of robbery charges in 1998, when Polanco was 16. Martinez said that some people who came through his court on juvenile matters were able to turn their lives around. "I'm sorry I didn't succeed with you," Martinez said to Polanco, who had a large "Pomona" tattoo on the back of his shaved head. "You hooked yourself up with some people, and you've become apparently one of them," Martinez said.
Prosecutors said Felix supplied Polanco with the gun intended for the hit and also arranged the details of the plan. Garcia was a higher-ranking gang member, prosecutors said. Police discovered the plot to kill Buelna during the massive gang sweeps that followed the killing of California Highway Patrol Officer Thomas Steiner in April 2004. Steiner was shot and killed outside the Pomona courthouse by a teenager trying to impress the 12th Street gang.