MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — A man was sentenced Monday to over 17 years in prison for seriously injuring two people in a seemingly unprovoked shooting last year at a Mountlake Terrace apartment.
On the night of April 18, 2021, Deguialin Babkino Valdez and four friends were drinking beer at the Mountlake Terrace apartment, according to charging papers. The four decided to go to a bar, but Valdez, then 22, decided to stay at the apartment, where he’d been living.
They returned around 11:30 p.m. As soon as the first man entered, Valdez jumped up from the couch and reportedly shot him. The man fell to the ground. Another man thought his friend was pretending to be shot as a joke.
But Valdez then pointed the gun at the other three and fired, according to the charges. Two of the men reported they had no idea why Valdez would be shooting at them. Eventually, the defendant stopped shooting, looked at his pistol and said “empty.” Valdez calmly walked out of the apartment.
When Mountlake Terrace officers arrived, they reportedly found one man with a gunshot wound to his neck sitting in an Audi parked in front of the apartment.
As he left the scene, Valdez shot that man, who had returned but hadn’t walked up to the apartment, prosecutors alleged.
Thinking Valdez had only hit him with the gun, the man didn’t realize he’d been shot, as he later told investigators after being released from the hospital.
Officers found the other victim shot in the head on the dining room floor. He was conscious, but not alert. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition.
Officers noted numerous bullet holes in the front door of the apartment and in the walls. Five shell casings on the ground were for .45-caliber bullets, according to court papers.
Later, another resident returned home from work. He told police he owned a .45-caliber handgun, but noticed it had been stolen from his bedroom.
That morning, Valdez had asked if he could buy the gun. The resident didn’t give Valdez permission to take the gun, according to court documents.
On April 27, prosecutors charged Valdez with four counts of first-degree assault in Snohomish County Superior Court. He was arrested the next month in Seattle. Valdez had been in custody at the Snohomish County Jail with bail set at $200,000 since that arrest.
Court papers subsequently filed by the defendant’s public defender shed light on his motive for the surprise shooting. In the months leading up to the attack, Valdez was showing extreme signs of paranoia. He believed others, including one of the men he shot, suspected him of sexual assault. These believed accusers assured Valdez they held no such beliefs. But he didn’t believe them.
At the same time, Valdez reportedly believed one of the victims had sexually assaulted him.
“The victims denied any such conduct, and there appears to be no evidence supporting such a belief on the defendant’s part,” Valdez’s lawyer Robert O’Neal wrote in court documents.
A mental health evaluation found Valdez had a serious mental illness, with symptoms of paranoid thinking and disassociation, O’Neal wrote.
The defendant doesn’t remember the shooting, but pleaded guilty to one count each of first-degree assault and second-degree assault last month. After reviewing records, Valdez conceded the evidence indicated he committed the shooting even if he didn’t recall it, according to the defense attorney.
“Still, it does not feel ‘real’ to him that he would have shot his friends,” O’Neal wrote.
Given he could’ve faced a much heftier prison term if convicted of the original charges, his attorneys decided not to pursue a mental health defense.
Under state sentencing guidelines, Valdez faced between 14½ and 17½ years in prison. Prosecutors and Valdez’s attorneys both recommended the high end of the range.
Superior Court Judge Anita Farris agreed.
Jake Goldstein-Street: 425-339-3439; jake.goldstein-street@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @GoldsteinStreet.
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