Jury convicts Oceano man of involuntary manslaughter over fatal shooting

June 14, 2024

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

A San Luis Obispo County jury convicted an Oceano man of involuntary manslaughter and filing a false police report over the shooting death of a 28-year-old man in the Lopez Lake area of rural Arroyo Grande.

On Nov. 4, 2022, a group of people transported Alexander Xavier MonteroPille to Arroyo Grande Community Hospital with a gunshot wound. MonteroPille, who was a resident of Arroyo Grande, died at the hospital.

The witnesses described a road rage incident on Los Berros Road near Quailwood Lane during which a physical fight ensued between the occupants of two vehicles. One of the occupants then shot Pille, the witnesses claimed.

But during their investigation, SLO County Sheriff’s detectives determined the witnesses had fabricated the road rage story. 

The evidence established the group of four had been driving in the rural mountainous area of Lopez Canyon, where they were shooting a gun and consuming alcohol and marijuana. Daniel Jacobo, 23, who was in the rear passenger seat of a truck, shot several rounds into the mountain from within the vehicle. As Jacobo brought the handgun back into the cab, he fired one round which struck the rear of the driver’s seat, according to the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office.

The bullet passed through the seat and into the back of the driver, MonteroPille, killing him. Jacobo threw the gun out of the truck, and the group of three made up the road rage story to cover up the cause of MonteroPille’s death.

During a later interview, detectives pressed Jacobo on the true circumstances of the killing. Jacobo admitted he was high on marijuana at the time he shot MonteroPille.

Prosecutors charged Jacobo with involuntary manslaughter, using a firearm in commission of a felony and making a false crime report. The jury found Jacobo guilty of the involuntary manslaughter and filing a false police report counts and acquitted him of the charge of using a firearm during the killing. 

Jacobo faces a maximum sentence of four years and six months in county jail. His sentencing is scheduled for July 15 in the courtroom of Judge Timothy Covello.

The Oceano man is currently in SLO County Jail with his bail set at $227,000, according to the sheriff’s office website.

Authorities previously charged Alexis Tapiapille, 21, of Oceano, and Marc Anthony Ramos Perez, 21, of Mexico, for being accessories to the crime and filing a false crime report.