SALEM, Ore. — Two men have pled guilty Thursday for the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Eduardo Garcia in Salem from 2022.
John Juarez-Juarez, who was 19 years old at the time of the incident, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for first-degree manslaughter and first-degree attempted murder. The shooter, Yahir Cruz-Rosales, who was barely 18 years old at the time, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for first-degree murder and first-degree attempted murder with a firearm, according to the news release.
At the time of the shooting, Cruz-Rosales was on parole for burglary from the Oregon Youth Authority.
On March 9, 2022, shortly before 5:30 p.m., deputies responded to reports of a shooting near Hayesville Drive Northeast and Reimann Street Northeast, an area on the east side of I-5 near Keizer.
When deputies arrived, they found Garcia suffering from critical injuries. He was taken to a hospital; the sheriff's office said that he later died as a result of his injuries. An autopsy confirmed that he died from a gunshot wound.
At the sentencing, Juarez-Juarez said the motivation behind the killing was gang-related.
An investigation found that Juarez-Juarez and Cruz-Rosales had spotted Garcia's car, then pursued him through traffic for over three minutes before they pulled up alongside his vehicle. Cruz-Rosales shot the victim's vehicle three times — one of the shots hitting Garcia in the chest.
“This is another senseless gang-related shooting death,” District Attorney Paige Clarkson stated. “It is worrisome how common this narrative has become for young men in this community. This case, combined with tragic recent events, emphasizes the need to focus on gun violence prevention and community-based intervention of gang violence.”
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Prior to the shooting, Juarez-Juarez and Cruz-Rosales had also been victims of other shootings. Juarez-Juarez had been shot in the neck when he was 16 years old, and Cruz-Rosales had been in a vehicle that was shot seventeen times. Both of those investigations remain ongoing, said the Marion County District Attorney's Office.
The passenger in Garcia's car that night, Zachery Retonong, had also previously been charged with first-degree murder and now is serving a 270-month prison sentence in the Oregon Department of Corrections for that incident.
According to the news release, Retonong’s convictions made challenges in ensuring proof in Garcia's shooting that was a factor in both Juarez-Juarez and Cruz-Rosales receiving manslaughter on this case.
