Alleged Gang Member Sentenced ... How is Novato Doing vs. Gangs?

The sentencing of a suspected gang member Friday prompts a couple of questions to Novato residents: Is the town's gang problem bigger or smaller than other surrounding cities? How worried are you about gang violence? Has law enforcement made significant progress and successfully sent the message to gangs that Novato about its zero-tolerance stance?

The gang member sentencing Friday had little to do with gang violence, but it did put a man behind bars who was key suspect Novato shooting last year. , 27, a suspect in a pending attempted murder trial, was sentenced on an unrelated counts of having sex with a minor and making criminal threats, according to a story in the .

More than 18 months after two men were shot outside the , alleged gang member Gil still awaits his trial on attempted murder. and survived in the Jan. 3, 2011, incident, believed to be gang-related, and Gil was in Rohnert Park.

Gil was found to have seven previous counts against him. Friday he was sentenced to three years and eight months in jail for having sex with a 15-year-old Novato girl and threatening the mother of his child, the Marin IJ reported.

A 22-year-old Novato woman and 17-year-old boy were arrested in connection with the Hamilton shooting. , was detained about 40 minutes after the shooting at her home in the San Marin area.  May 26 in downtown San Rafael. Like Gil, both face attempted murder charges.

According to police reports, suspects fled the Safeway parking lot in Hamilton, where the two men were shot as they sat in a white Toyota Corolla. They were identified as a 23-year-old San Jose resident and a 27-year-old San Rafael resident.