Pasco teen’s murder case in holding pattern until co-defendant is tried

A Pasco teen charged with murder has been sitting in juvenile detention for one year with little movement on his case.

Abraham Barajas, 16, is accused of participating in a deadly shooting outside Fiesta Foods because he needed to “put in work” for his gang.

In February — one year after Juan C. Melgoza was killed — a hearing was held to determine if Barajas should be tried as an adult.

But at the outset, Deputy Prosecutor Kim Kremer announced that she and Barajas’ attorney, Karyn Oldfield, had come to an agreement to keep the case in Franklin County Juvenile Court.

At another hearing a week later, the court was told his charges were being reduced to first-degree assault and first-degree rendering criminal assistance.

Yet, that amended information was never filed with the Franklin County Clerk’s Office.

When Barajas appeared this week in Juvenile Court, Oldfield told Court Commissioner Jackie Stam they wanted to set the case out to Sept. 15.

“We’re still gathering information, and it’s a complicated matter,” Oldfield said.

Barajas remains in custody on $250,000 bail for first-degree premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.

It is not clear if the teen’s plea deal hinges on his testimony in the case against co-defendant Chris Pedroza-DeSantiago.

But Prosecutor Shawn Sant did acknowledge Friday that his office expects Barajas “to enter a plea following the trial” of Pedroza-DeSantiago.

The 21-year-old Pasco man’s trial in Franklin County Superior Court recently was moved to Aug. 22. He has the same charges as Barajas, in addition to a first-degree unlawful gun possession.

Court documents show that Pedroza-DeSantiago spotted Melgoza on Feb. 4, 2015, wearing a rival gang color in the parking lot of the Pasco grocery store. The two got into a heated argument, but ended up walking away from each other.

About eight minutes later, Pedroza-DeSantiago returned to the lot with Barajas — who was 15 at the time — and shot Melgoza in the back, documents said.

Melgoza, 42, fell to the ground and died in the parking lot.

The older suspect allegedly yelled their gang’s name as he fired several times.

Barajas later told investigators he participated because he believed he would be kicked out of his gang or beaten up if he did not go along with Pedroza-DeSantiago.

Barajas already was in custody in May 2015 at the juvenile detention center for violating conditions in an unrelated case when investigators connected him to Melgoza’s death.

This story was originally published May 20, 2016 at 6:27 PM with the headline "Pasco teen’s murder case in holding pattern until co-defendant is tried."