Once behind bars as a convicted murderer, UC Irvine student now looks ahead to future
When Shawn Khalifa was growing up in Perris, he was more focused on the local gangs than on anything else. With both his parents working, he spent his days working at what he considered “victimless” crimes — things he thought he could do without physically harming anyone, such as burglaries.
“It was just a complete norm in my life,” Khalifa, now 35, said.
For the record:
11:22 a.m. Jan. 29, 2024A previous version of this story stated Khalifa was 31. He is 35.
He knew kids who would steal bikes from other kids through violence. And though his peers didn’t think anything of behaving that way, he said he didn’t want any part of it.
His refusal to do so, he thinks, is part of the reason he’s standing outside of a correctional facility today, even though Khalifa was convicted of the first-degree murder of Hubert Love, 77, during an attempted home invasion on Jan. 27, 2004.
Khalifa, who had just turned 15, was a lookout that night while two of the three boys with him, Juan Pena and Fernando Rivera, were inside of the house. The fourth teen at the scene that night was Mark Gardner.
“The backyard was open. So, we walked in through the backyard. We snuck into this home. That was my lifestyle. The 17-year-old that’s with me knocks on the door ... I got scared. I was thinking, ‘He’s going to get us in so much trouble. It’s quiet. Someone’s going to call the police and I want to run away.’ But because he stayed; I went back,” Khalifa recalled. “He says, ‘They’re going to open the door.’ I go back and they yank me in violently. I have to navigate this 18-year-old yelling at me, showing me a weapon, going, ‘What do you think you’re doing here?’
“And I’m thinking, ‘How do I get out of this?’”
Khalifa said the two older teenagers, Rivera and Pena, showed him Love, who appeared severely injured from a beating. At that point, he said, he was less concerned about Love than he was about getting out of what he realized was becoming an increasingly dangerous situation. He stole some chocolate candies off of a counter then left, telling Gardner that he wanted to separate from the other two teens.
“We’re going to separate from these guys. They assaulted that guy,” he recalled saying to Gardner. “They hurt this dude. We’re going to jail.”
He learned afterward that Love was not just injured but dead. According to reports, Khalifa did not witness Rivera later shooting Pena in the head using a gun stolen from Love that night.
Gardner pleaded guilty to manslaughter and robbery in exchange for testimony. Rivera and Khalifa were convicted of Love’s murder.
Khalifa spent the next 16 years in prison.
Today, Khalifa is a program coordinator at Irvine Valley College, a father and a soon-to-be graduate of UC Irvine. He said he wanted to share his story to represent a population of students that aren’t often heard from on campuses. He took advantage of the Underground Scholars program, which helps provide resources and support to formerly incarcerated students on campus and guidance for community college students who want to transfer to a university. The program was established in 2021.
Khalifa said he first started attending classes through Southwestern College when he was at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, after slowly earning trust and improving his security status during his time in prison.
College gave him confidence, he said. It gave him hope. He was released in 2020 after then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation that set new limits on who could be charged with felony murder. The change rolled back California’s felony murder rule that allowed for an individual to be charged if the victim died during the commission of a felony even if the individual did not intend to kill or did not know the homicide took place.
Underground Scholars program director Hector Cervantes said Khalifa was initially supposed to be a part of the first LIFTED — Leveraging Inspiring Futures Through Educational Degrees — cohort, but was released before the term started. The two later connected, and Cervantes helped Khalifa navigate the UC application process.
“For me, it’s rewarding to see him come this far,” Cervantes said. “I remember when we initially connected, he was hesitant on applying to UCI. I had to sell him and just share with him, ‘You have all these resources when you get here. Guaranteed housing, groceries, meal swipes, transportation, healthcare.’
“Now he’s at Irvine Valley College, and I just submitted a letter of recommendation for his graduate program. It’s rewarding to see him go full circle, and I’m excited to see what he’s going to do at Irvine Valley College,” Cervantes said.
Khalifa said education has given him tools he needs for life, although he acknowledges he still faces challenges due to his status as a formerly incarcerated person. There are jobs he’s been barred from and some people have told him he is never going to amount to anything after spending half his life behind bars.
He said education is a necessary good to help reduce recidivism, as it allows people who have served their time to build a foundation for their lives that’s not rooted in crime.
“Education gives you ownership over your intelligence and abilities. No one’s going to take these degrees from me and people want to hire people with knowledge. Not too many of our experts and researchers lived in Pelican Bay [State Prison] or functioned and overcame drug and substance use. I was a full-fledged criminal and transitioned into a Christian,” he said. “It’s about the health of our community.
“Who do you want to sit next to on a train? Sit next to someone who will hurt you because they’re hurt because we don’t have equity in all of our communities? That’s what [Underground Scholars and LIFTED] do. We level the playing field and let people know what’s out there.”
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