Man sentenced to 13 years for random shooting outside Everett homeless shelter
Published 2:40 pm Monday, May 4, 2026
EVERETT — A Mukilteo man who shot a stranger outside of the Everett Gospel Mission just days after being released from jail in 2022 will spend more than a decade in prison.
A Snohomish County Superior Court judge sentenced Cesar David Camacho-Amezcua, 33, to 13 years behind bars on Monday.
Charging papers from shortly after the crime accuse Camacho-Amezcua of shooting one man in the face from point-blank range and attacking another man in the early morning hours of Dec. 15, 2022. Investigators described the violence as completely random.
Camacho-Amezcua pleaded guilty late last year to a charge of first-degree assault while on community custody.
Prosecutors said Camacho-Amezcua was released from custody just two days before the shooting. He was known to local police due to his affiliation with the Southside Locos street gang, court documents said.
He had four previous felony convictions in Snohomish County, including burglary, unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, in addition to more than a dozen misdemeanor charges, according to court records.
A memorandum filed by an attorney representing Camacho-Amezcua asked the judge for a lenient sentence, saying the violence was uncharacteristic and the result of prolonged drug use.
“His consumption of methamphetamine had driven him into a state of psychosis so severe that he believed that Santa Muerte was giving him a divine command to make a blood sacrifice to save the lives of his family and friends,” defense attorney Paul Wagner wrote. “He was out of his mind not because of drugs, as he was in lockup with no access to drugs for two weeks. It was because of his temporary psychotic state.”
Court documents said the shooting victim was standing in an alley near the Everett Gospel Mission on Smith Avenue when a BMW stopped nearby. A man, later identified as Camacho-Amezcua, got out of the car, approached the victim and fired one shot before his gun jammed. Camacho-Amezcua then approached another man nearby, attempting to shoot him, before pushing him to the ground and pistol whipping him, according to police.
The shooting shattered the victim’s jaw, but prosecutors said he survived the attack.
Surveillance video and witnesses connected Camacho-Amezcua to the crime, court documents said. He was arrested hours after the shooting when Everett police pulled over a car matching the description of the BMW seen near the scene.
Camacho-Amezcua originally faced four charges, including attempted first-degree murder, in connection to the 2022 shooting, but prosecutors reduced the charges as part of a plea deal, documents said.
“I wasn’t right in my mental health during those moments,” Camacho-Amezcua told the judge before sentencing. “I just pray that you see that I was going through these hallucinations. The person who you are sentencing today is not the person who committed these crimes.”
A felony charge of first-degree assault carries a standard sentencing range of 11 to 15 years in prison with the possibility of a maximum life sentence. Prosecutors described the crime as a “significant act of random violence” and recommended a 13-and-a-half-year sentence.
A woman accused of driving Camacho-Amezcua to and from the shooting pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of rendering criminal assistance in 2023. According to online court records, she is still awaiting sentencing.
Ian Davis-Leonard: 425-339-3097; ian.davis-leonard@heraldnet.com
