San Francisco Sureño gets 20 years for three murders in partially sealed court hearing

SAN FRANCISCO — When he was indicted, Michael “Gallo” Rebolledo faced a possible death sentence for his role in shootings that left three people dead and two paralyzed, court records show.

In the end, Rebolledo, 37, received a total prison sentence of 20 years after pleading guilty to racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit murder, and other federal charges related to the three killings. Rebolledo was sentenced on Jan. 13, in a hourlong court hearing that was kept sealed from the public for about the first 15 minutes, records show.

Rebolledo, described by prosecutors as a founding member of the 16th Street Sureños, was one of 10 alleged gang members indicted in 2018, for charges that included seven previously unsolved killings dating back to 2006. The defendants, all young men or teens at the time of the murders, had largely found stability in life, started families, overcame drug addictions, and obtained steady jobs, when the murder charges came back to haunt them. Now, all are in prison; Rebolledo was the last of the bunch to be sentenced.

Prosecutors didn’t announced Rebolledo’s guilty plea or prison sentence, nor did they detail the crimes in sentencing memos. The lone exception was one support letter, filed by a lifelong friend of Rebolledo, a plumbing business CEO who argued the alleged gang founder deserves a “second chance.”

“Fishing hasn’t been the same without Michael. Camping is also not the same without him. He is the light and laughter of our days out in the middle of nowhere,” the support letter says. “Every year, we would pack our stuff and go camping with our families. Some of the best memories were created.”

All three of Rebolledo’s murders occurred in 2006, including a March 14 double homicide on the 1900 block of Mission Street in San Francisco, where two other shooting victims survived. One of the murder victims was identified in published reports as Russell Lee Cummins, 26, whose last name is spelled “Cummings” in another report. Another victim died from medical complications several months later, and has not been publicly identified. The third killing occurred 10 days later, in San Francisco, records show.