Gang associate sentenced to 8.5 years in prison for vehicular homicide on La Salle Street in 2022 | Spokane News

A Sureño gang associate was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for the 2022 shooting death of a Yakima man.

Abraham Jesus Garcia-Carillo, 18, pleaded Wednesday in Yakima County Superior Court to a single charge of first-degree manslaughter in the drive-by shooting death of Randy Scholl, 42, outside a home in La Salle Street on May 15, 2022.

An Alford plea allows Garcia-Carrillo to maintain his innocence while admitting that a jury likely would have found him guilty of his original charges had he gone to trial.

Garcia-Carrillo was initially charged with first-degree murder and two counts each of first-degree assault and drive-by shooting. He also faced gun enhancements for the murder and assault charges that could have added another 15 years if convicted.

The sentence, for which Garcia-Carrillo will receive credit for time he has already served in custody, is at the high end of the sentencing scale for someone with a criminal record. He was never convicted of a crime, but court records indicate he was associated with a gang.

Assistant Yakima County Prosecutor Joseph Brown said the deal, which he said was the result of “vehement” negotiations, didn't make him or Scholl's family happy, but he said he recognized the risks both sides would face if they went to court.

“The long and the short.” . . Is this a good resolution? I think both sides are giving up something in this case,” Brown said.

Although there is video showing Garcia-Carrillo passing the car twice and shots being fired from the car, Brown said the car was registered to the mother of his accused accomplice, David Davila-Cordero, and the video doesn't show who in reality. fired the gun.

Brown said another factor was the fact that Garcia-Carrillo was 16 at the time of the shooting. He was charged as an adult because of a state law that requires juvenile courts to automatically “decline” jurisdiction over 16- and 17-year-olds accused of certain crimes, including murder.

DNA testing by the Washington State Patrol laboratory revealed that the two men had handled the .223-caliber rifle, Brown said, and defense investigators obtained a statement from Davila-Cordero saying that he was the shooter.

“I don’t necessarily believe that,” Brown said as Garcia-Carrillo shook her head, “but it still created a risk of a lawsuit.”

Davila-Cordero was sentenced to 35 years in prison last year after pleading with Alford to second-degree murder for Scholl's death as well as the 2021 killing of Jose “Joey” Cantu.

Christopher Swaby, Garcia-Carrillo's attorney, agreed with everything Brown said and warned Garcia-Carrillo that the fact that he was in the car at the time of the shooting and that he was handling the weapon could convince jurors to find him guilty of murder. .

Swaby said Garcia-Carrillo, who he described as a boy, may have been influenced by older people — Davila-Cordero was two years older — and found himself in a bad situation.

“I think he has the ability and now the interest to do a lot more than he did before,” Swaby said. “I think he'll be out in a few years and we won't see him here again because I think he'll learn a trade in prison or he's got some education in prison and he's moving forward like the rest of us. between us in our communities.

Marc Scholl, Scholl's brother, said he must struggle every day with the memory of his brother's death in his arms as Garcia-Carrillo will soon be released from prison.

Scholl's family members told police at the time of the shooting that they were shot at as they left Scholl's home on South Eighth Street, and Scholl went to the 900 block of La Salle Street with a rifle, according to a probable cause affidavit, and he was shot as a car drove by the house again.

Video from the scene shows Scholl never raised the rifle, according to the affidavit.

Garcia-Carrillo apologized “for everything that happened to this person and his family. I was different than I am now.”

Garcia-Carrillo's mother attended the hearing but declined to make a statement to the court during sentencing.

While imposing the sentence, Judge Sonia Rodriguez True told Garcia-Carrillo that failing to value human life ultimately leads to breaking the law and hurting others, adding that this situation visibly caused her mother pain.

“I hope, Mr. Garcia-Carrillo, that this truly breaks you, that you truly understand the level of damage that you have caused, that you feel this, that you understand your mother's suffering, that it has changed you” , said Rodriguez True.