An argument over money that led to a shooting death Sept. 4 resulted in a 15-month prison sentence Thursday for the shooter.
Luis Guillermo Vazquez, 27, pleaded guilty last month to a reduced charge of drive-by shooting in connection with the incident.
Vazquez originally was charged in Snohomish County Superior Court with second-degree murder in the early morning shooting of Job Rodriguez-Salinas in an apartment complex parking lot.
Deputy prosecutor David Hiltner dropped a murder charge and substituted the drive-by-shooting charge in March after he ran into evidence problems.
“We could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it wasn’t self-defense, and in fact (Vazquez) was not being robbed at the time of the incident,” Hiltner said.
Vazquez told police he drove into the Brittany Court apartments in the 12600 block of Eighth Avenue W. and two men walked up to his van. Then, a truck pulled up behind the van, hemming it in.
Vazquez told police that the two men pulled the driver’s side window out and one grabbed him by the shirt. One held a knife to his throat. They were after money they said he owed to Rodriguez-Salinas.
The defendant told police he reached into the van’s glove box and took out a pistol. He fired in the direction of Rodriguez-Salinas and the two men started running. Vazquez then got out of the vehicle and fired a second shot in the direction of the fleeing men.
Although he was able to run a short distance, Rodriguez-Salinas was fatally injured with the first shot, Hiltner said.
Judge Linda Krese listened at length to Rodriguez-Salinas’ parents. His father told the judge he hopes Vazquez has learned a lesson. When he gets out of prison he hopes Vazquez will turn his life around. If that happens, the death of his son will have accomplished something, he said.
Through an interpreter, his mother said that there are no winners, and both families lost something.
Public Defender Laura Martin told the judge that Vazquez has maintained his self-defense story throughout.
“He did what he could to save himself,” Martin said.
However, she agreed that Vazquez should not have fired the second shot.
Through an interpreter, Vazquez said that he doesn’t want to hurt anyone.
“I really felt my life was threatened,” he said. “I was afraid.”
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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