A Columbia man pleaded guilty last month to taking part in a shooting on a residential street, then attempting to hide the evidence.

Isaiah Jose Diaz, of the 200 block of Fourth Street, pleaded guilty before Judge Merrill Spahn on Feb. 12 to two counts of criminal conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, one count each of criminal conspiracy to discharge a firearm into an occupied structure, possession of a firearm, criminal conspiracy to possession of a firearm and criminal conspiracy to recklessly endanger another person and four counts of recklessly endangering another person.

Judge Spahn will sentence Diaz, 22, after the conclusion of a pre-sentence investigation.  

A co-defendant, 19-year-old J’Vian Mendez-Gonzalez, fired a gun into a residence in the 400 block of Avenue K in Columbia Borough the afternoon of Nov. 1, 2024, alondside Diaz and another conspirator, Caelan Natrell Brown. The three then hid the two guns used during the incident inside Diaz’s residence.

Three people, one of them a juvenile, were inside the residence at the time of the shooting but were not injured.

Eyewitnesses told police they had seen three masked men wearing dark clothing fleeing after the shots had been fired shortly before 1:30 p.m.

Minutes later, the same three suspects were seen running into a home in the 200 block of South Fourth Street. Police arrested all three co-defendants when they secured the South Fourth Street residence, though they were no longer wearing dark clothing.

A witness from inside the South Fourth Street residence later told police the three men had changed their clothes and shoes and hid several handguns. Investigators recovered two guns from the kitchen ceiling and the discarded clothing hidden behind a couch after searching the home.

Diaz and Brown admitted to being present during the shooting, with Brown claiming he and Mendez-Gonzalez had been involved in a fight with two other men at a local business during which his phone was stolen. Brown told police he had tracked his phone’s location to the 400 block of Avenue K, after which Diaz gave him and Mendez-Gonzalez two guns and they all traveled to the residence together.

Both Brown and Mendez-Gonzalez have already pleaded guilty to offenses stemming from the same incident.

As part of his sentence, Diaz will also have to forfeit the firearms and ammunition police seized from his residence.

Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Lapp prosecuted the case.

Columbia Borough Police Officer Brent Smith filed the charges.