17-year-old killed ‘just steps’ from home, CA officials say. Man sentenced
Briana Soto, 17, talked to her mother over the phone as she walked home from her job about a mile away from her family’s apartment the evening of March 26, 2024, a California news outlet reported.
Her mother, Ana Morales, told KNBC they ended their call just before she heard gunshots outside their apartment.
“I never imagined that (the gunshots) were for her,” Morales told the outlet in Spanish.
Now, more than a year after the high school senior was killed “steps from her Long Beach home,” the accused shooter is headed to prison, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a July 31 news release.
Troy Lamar Fox, 34, received a 358-year prison sentence after a jury in March found him guilty of several charges, including first-degree murder, in Briana Soto’s slaying and separate attempted murders, prosecutors said.
Attorney information for Fox was not immediately available.
“Briana Soto had her whole life ahead of her — she was getting ready for her prom, her 18th birthday, and graduation,” District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said in the release. “While this punishment cannot undo the pain he caused, it is a step toward justice for Briana, her loved ones, and our community.”
Teen killed walking home
Soto was walking from her McDonald’s job when she was shot outside her home, prosecutors said, adding that she died at a hospital three days later.
She died from a gunshot wound to the head, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office.
When a month passed and no suspects were identified in Soto’s killing, Long Beach police looked to the public for answers, releasing a video of a suspect, McClatchy News previously reported.
“I’m the father of a daughter, I’m a husband to a wife, I’m a public servant to the community, and this is devastating for this family, as it would be for any of us,” Chief Wally Hebeish said at an April 2024 news conference announcing the video’s release, KCAL reported. “It is unfortunate, it is tragic.”
Police said they were investigating a motive for the shooting.
“There’s nothing to indicate that Briana was anything more than an innocent victim walking home from work,” Hebeish said, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reported.
Briana was a senior at Poly High School, according to the Long Beach Post.
“Briana is very kind, she loves going out, she is very smart and loving,” a GoFundMe says. “She has the best smile ever ... she loves receiving flowers and doing her makeup, she is the best sister, friend, daughter and granddaughter.”
Suspect identified
Months later, police said they had identified Fox as a suspect in Soto’s case, with help from “DNA, video and cellular phone evidence.”
When Fox was arrested, he was already in jail custody “on an unrelated weapons violation,” police said.
When Fox appeared in court in October, “Morales said in Spanish that she’s only hoping for one thing: ‘That justice be done for her, that is what I ask,’” the Long Beach Post reported.
As detectives investigated Soto’s, police said they identified Fox as a suspect in additional incidents.
Fox is accused of leaving a car armed with a rifle and opening fire at another vehicle carrying four minors in Long Beach on April 9, 2024, prosecutors said.
“No one was killed, but the shooting resulted in attempted murder charges,” prosecutors said.
In addition to the first-degree murder charge in Soto’s case, prosecutors said a jury also found Fox, who has previously been convicted of attempted robbery and making criminal threats, guilty of four counts of attempted murder in connection with the April 2024 shooting.
This story was originally published August 1, 2025 at 12:05 PM with the headline "17-year-old killed ‘just steps’ from home, CA officials say. Man sentenced."
