CRIP GANG MEMBER PLEADS GUILTY TO SEASIDE SHOOTING CAUSING MAYHEM

Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni announced today that Reginald Leon Williams 23, of Seaside entered no contest plea to one count of Mayhem, admitted a firearm enhancement, and admitted a prior strike conviction for a shooting Williams committed in Seaside in March 2025. Williams will receive a 20-year prison sentence on October 28, 2026.

On March 2, 2025, Williams learned of planned one-on-one fistfights between juveniles in Seaside. Williams informed a 16-year-old fellow Crip he would attend the fight event and back up the teenaged fighters affiliated with Seaside's Crip gang. Later that day about 20 people attended the fight at Beta Park in Seaside. After the one-on-one fights ended, a group fight commenced between the 20 fight attendees. Just after the group fight started Williams arrived in a vehicle driven by his girlfriend. Williams exited the vehicle and joined the group fight. A few minutes later Williams returned to the vehicle and then an unknown person cracked its rear window. Willams' girlfriend drove about 200' away from the group fight and Williams ordered her to stop the vehicle. Williams then exited and fired four shots at the fight attendees that remained behind at Beta Park. One of Williams' gunshots struck 17-year-old John Doe in the head. Doe was 185 feet from where Williams opened fire and had attended the fight. Doe was life-flighted to Stanford where he was hospitalized for more than a month as he endured multiple surgeries. Doe's gunshot wound blinded him for life in one eye.

After the shooting Williams and his girlfriend rented a motel room in Monterey. Less than 24 hours after the shooting officers identified Williams' vehicle on surveillance footage and used ALPR cameras to track Williams' path of travel after the shooting. Williams' car did not leave the area of the hotel and those captures helped officers deduce Willams' location there. Officers located his car at the motel, lawfully searched his room and recovered the firearm Williams used in the Beta Park shooting.

Williams will receive a 20-year prison sentence on October 28, 2026. Williams has a prior juvenile strike adjudication for attempted armed carjacking and prior felony convictions for attempted oral copulation of a minor and firearm possession. Seaside Police Detective Hector Huizar and Monterey County District Attorney Investigator Daisy Gurley investigated this case.