A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge sentenced the man convicted of attempted murder in the Halloween 2022 shooting at the Valencia mall to a total of 23 years to life in prison, the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office confirmed Monday.
The prosecutor in the case, Shareen Nizami, was not immediately available for comment in response to the sentence.
Judge David Walgren attached the high term as well as special allegations to the sentence for Isaac Clark, 26, a Lancaster man who claimed self-defense and that the victim was affiliated with gang activity. His first trial ended in a hung jury last year.
A San Fernando jury convicted Clark in December after a second trial that began two years after the shooting.
Walgren sentenced Clark to seven years to life for the attempted murder charge, plus a pair of special enhancements under state law — high-term enhancement of 10 years because a gun was used in the commission of his crime and an additional three years because he inflicted great bodily injury, for a total of 20 years.
He was given the high term of three years for a felony conviction of being in possession of a handgun, which is to be served consecutively after his attempted-murder charge. For the assault with a deadly weapon charge, a 22-year sentence was stayed.
“The court … exercises its discretion not to strike any enhancements imposed because it would endanger public safety and it would be contrary to the interest of justice to strike those enhancements,” Walgren ordered, according to the minutes of the hearing.
Clark has been in jail since the shooting. He received credit for a total of 987 days, 859 days of actual custody credit and 128 days of “good time/work time.”
Nizami said after Clark’s conviction in December that, the second time around, she was able to prove that some of his claims on the stand the first time around were demonstrably false, which played a role in how the second trial went.
Angela Garcia and Nigel Edwards, who lost a lung in the shooting, gave an impact statement in open court, according to a minute order available online.
Clark said Edwards attacked him outside Black ‘N’ Bleu, a now-shuttered former bar-restaurant at the Valencia Town Center. He said he fired several warning shots in the air before the one that struck Edwards.
Nizami said that, during the second trial, there was more testimony from an “independent party,” as well as a first responder who treated Edwards.
Black ’N Bleu, the former Town Center Drive establishment, announced in February 2024: “Due to forces out of our control, we will be moving our business to a more entertainment-friendly city.”
In response to questions at the time, an Alcoholic Beverage Control spokesman shared an October 2023 ABC complaint that cites two counts alleging “cause for suspension or revocation of the license.” At the time, the business was awaiting a hearing that could have cost its liquor license.
Clark was ordered back to court in June to address a restitution hearing for his victim.
