CORONA — A street gang member pleaded guilty Thursday to attempted murder after shooting a rival at a bar on 103rd Street, telling police he "did not care" if his victim died, according to the Queens DA.
Jose Sanchez-Ortiz, 21 — an alleged member of the Los Traviesos street gang — walked into Pasiones Club on Dec. 14, 2015 and shot at 21-year-old Jose Apolinar, who is a member of Los Ninos Malos, the DA said.
He told police that his girlfriend snuck the gun into the club for him and, after Apolinar threw a chair at him, he fired three shots, hitting the victim once in the arm, according to the criminal complaint.
Sanchez-Ortiz told police he "did not care" if the victim died. He threw his gun in the street after fleeing the club and thought it fell into a storm drain, the complaint said.
Apolinar received surgery for a severed artery, officials said.
Sanchez-Ortiz was arraigned in March and has been held in jail on $500,000 bail since then, the DA said.
He is expected to be sentenced in September to nine years in prison, with five years of supervision once he is released, under the terms of the plea deal.
His lawyer, Matthew Thomas from the Queens Law Associates, did not return calls seeking comment.
