Pasco teen may have been killed with his own gun
A Pasco teen killed last month near the cable bridge may have been shot with his own gun as he was giving a ride to the two alleged shooters.
George Garcia Thacker, 18, was shot five times in the head and neck, possibly at close range, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday.
His body was found on the ground just a few feet from the car he had been driving a short time earlier when a witness saw Nathan Quintero climb into the front passenger seat and his brother, Jaden Quintero, get in the back, documents said.
Nathan, 23, and Jaden, 17, pleaded innocent Tuesday in Franklin County Superior Court to one count each of first-degree murder. Their trials are scheduled for Dec. 16.
Bail is set at $1 million each.
A dozen family and friends of the Quintero brothers were in court. On the other side of the courtroom sat about six of Garcia Thacker’s loved ones.
When Jaden Quintero was before the court, a male relative of the victim called him a “killer” as he walked behind him in the gallery.
An hour later, when Nathan Quintero’s case was called, that same relative rushed to the front of the courtroom behind the glass partition and yelled a series of expletives at the suspect, including calling him a “coward.”
Someone from the Quintero family shouted “f--- you,” which brought the same response from the man. He again called Nathan Quintero a coward, along with several expletives, as a bailiff approached the man to escort him out.
A woman with the Quintero family yelled at the man, as he was pushed out of the courtroom, “You don’t even know what happened.”
Judge Alex Ekstrom, who has been assigned to preside over Nathan Quintero’s case, asked the bailiff to get the man’s name and ruled that he is “not permitted to attend future hearings” without the court’s approval.
Deputy Prosecutor Dave Corkrum, when asked by the court if he wanted to take any action, said he had no idea who the man is and did not wish to do anything at this time.
Garcia Thacker was killed Oct. 7 and found on West River Street, near the cable bridge.
A Chevrolet Cobalt, which the teen had been driving, had large amounts of blood spatter inside, and spent and unspent 9 mm pistol rounds were found at the scene, court documents said. His family said the teen usually had a cellphone on him, but the phone and the car key were not located in a later search of the car.
Pasco police Detective Jesse Romero said a business near Ninth Avenue and Washington Street was found to have outdoor surveillance cameras. The footage showed two people who appeared to be men running from the scene at 6:35 p.m., returning 20 seconds later and running in a different direction, documents said.
The 911 call came in at 6:41 p.m.
A “concerned citizen” who knows the victim and the suspects told investigators that Garcia Thacker got a call or message on his phone and was seen getting into the Chevrolet at 6:30 p.m. near Seventh Avenue and B Street.
Garcia Thacker was in the driver’s seat when two males identified as “Bubba” — Nathan’s street name — and his brother Jaden approached the car and had “some kind of exchange,” Romero wrote in court documents. The witness did not see or hear what was said, but they told police that the brothers then got into the Chevrolet and Garcia Thacker drove off.
“The citizen told me that George did not appear scared, but did seem confused about something,” Romero wrote. The person also told police that Garcia Thacker was known to carry a gun in the past.
Investigators located Bubba in their police database, and police said the witness picked out Nathan Quintero in a photo lineup.
The older brother was known to live on North Sixth Avenue. That was confirmed by the state Department of Corrections, which did a check on Nathan Quintero the morning after the shooting as follow-up on an earlier unrelated case, court documents show.
Investigators also learned that Jaden Quintero was living with a relative in another Pasco home, but the two recently had been staying at the house of Nathan Quintero’s girlfriend’s parents, documents said.
A search of that home allegedly turned up a 9 mm pistol wrapped in a shirt in a bathroom closet and a magazine with 9 mm ammunition in a nearby sock. The ammunition was from different manufacturers, consistent with the shell casings collected at the scene, documents said.
Kristin M. Kraemer: 509-582-1531; kkraemer@tricityherald.com; Twitter: @KristinMKraemer
This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 10:17 PM with the headline "Pasco teen may have been killed with his own gun."