A man accused of opening fire on two men in a drive-by at a convenience store in southeast Bakersfield has been convicted of first-degree murder.

The verdict was handed down to 40-year-old Tony Vasquez on Monday.

“The jury filtered through a lot of evidence – it took us about four weeks to try the case – and, ultimately, they came to the conclusion of a just verdict,” Kern County deputy district attorney Joseph Kinzel said.

He says he will urge life in prison during Vasquez’s sentencing in February.

“Any time you have somebody with a long history of criminal behavior that walks up and kills someone – yeah, we think he should be in prison for the rest of his life.”

Kinzel says Vasquez was on parole and wearing a GPS ankle monitor that put him at the 7-Eleven at Pacheco Road and South H Street on April 10 of last year, and tried to remove it after killing one man and wounding the other.

– Anthony Pollreisz