PENDLETON, Ore. — A Umatilla man charged with fatally shooting three people in a Benton County orchard will not face the death penalty.
Prosecutor Andy Miller confirmed Tuesday that his office will not seek a death sentence in the case of 24-year-old Francisco Resendez Miranda, reported The East Oregonian.
Resendez Miranda has been charged in Benton County Superior Court with three counts of aggravated first-degree murder. He could face life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of even one count of aggravated murder.
Prosecutors allege Resendez Miranda killed Abigail Torres-Renteria, 23, Victoria Torres, 19, and David Perez-Saucedo, 22, last summer. The bodies of the Pasco residents were found Aug. 9 in a field 15 miles from Resendez Miranda’s apartment.
The charges include the aggravating circumstance that Torres-Renteria was close to nine months pregnant when she was killed. A murder charge, under Washington law, cannot be filed for an unborn child.
Resendez Miranda worked with Perez-Saucedo at a Wyckoff Farms property in Patterson.
Perez-Saucedo, Torres, Torres-Renteria and a fourth person had gone to Umatilla Aug. 8. A farmworker discovered the three bodies in a field the next morning.
Court documents show the killings may have been out of retaliation for a break-in at Resendez Miranda’s apartment the night before.
Resendez Miranda was arrested Aug. 10 and held in the Umatilla County Jail until his Oregon charges were resolved and extradition paperwork had cleared the governors’ offices in both states. He later moved to the Benton County jail in Kennewick, where he is being held without bail.
The trial date was pushed back a week to Nov. 2 due to a conflict with the judge’s personal calendar.
Resendez Miranda did not object to the new trial date, but he said he does not want it to get pushed back further.
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