UPDATE: Convicted killer gets 16 years for shooting Pasco teen

A convicted killer opted to remain silent Monday despite a family’s pleas to explain why he gunned down a Pasco teen.

“To lose a child is horrible, and I ask, is there anything that can heal so much pain?” Pedro Garcia asked in a letter read in court about his son, George Garcia Thacker. “… Was it worth it? Trading off taking someone’s life for many years of your life in prison?”

“I also would like to know the real reason why you murdered my son,” he also wrote in his letter to Nathan T. Quintero. “If some day, you have the answer, I would like to know it. I sometimes wonder if after so much agony, to answer that question would even make sense as, at the end of the day, my son is no longer here with us.”

Quintero, 25, has a long history of gang-related gun violence. He didn’t feel comfortable addressing the judge, said his attorney Ryan Swinburnson.

But Judge Carrie Runge said she hoped the Pasco man listened in court to the words of the victim’s father and grandmother, because they’re the same questions and statements she would ask.

“The fact of the matter is we have two hurting families in this courtroom and it is a result of your actions,” Runge said during the hearing in Franklin County Superior Court.

“I get that you have no regard for this courtroom and no regard for lives, but these actions impact more than just yourself and impact more than just the family of George (Garcia Thacker),” she added. “It’s clear to see that your family also is hurting, yet I don’t know what it’s going to take to open your eyes.”

She ordered Quintero to serve 16 years and two months in prison.

It was the recommended sentence after his guilty plea in late July to first-degree manslaughter, which was reduced from first-degree murder.

As part of that plea agreement, his younger brother admitted first-degree rendering criminal assistance for helping Quintero avoid capture for two weeks.

Jaden F. Quintero, 19, was released after spending 21 months in the county jail. The gross misdemeanor typically carries a maximum of 364 days.

He was in court Monday with his family to show support for his older brother.

Garcia Thacker, 18, was shot five times in the head and neck in October 2015. His body was found near his crashed car on West River Street, not far from the cable bridge in Pasco.

A witness reported seeing the Quintero brothers get into Garcia Thacker’s car just minutes before the shooting.

Prosecutors said it was a circumstantial case, in part because the gun was never found, and they were unable to identify the actual shooter.

Bertha Thacker, the victim’s grandmother, also wrote a letter about how the Quinteros are still living, breathing, eating and visiting with their family, while she gets none of that with George.

“You had no right to take his life. It was not in self defense, two against one,” she said. “How you two can live with yourself is beyond me.”

Defense attorneys for the brothers said if the cases had gone to trial, they were prepared to argue self defense.

Nathan Quintero’s first criminal conviction was as a juvenile in 2008 for possessing a stolen gun.

Then in October 2009, he was a back seat passenger in an SUV when he fired several shots from a shotgun out the window as they drove north on Sylvester Street in Pasco. The target was a group of gang members outside the Carjo Apartments, who shot back.

Quintero got just over one year in prison for that drive-by shooting.

In February 2013, he again was a passenger in a car when he fired a revolver at least six times at a rival gang member’s house in Kennewick. The house, which was occupied at the time, was hit at least once though no one was hit.

The revolver had been reported stolen in a 2012 Pasco burglary.

He did three years and five months for drive-by shooting and first-degree unlawful gun possession, and had only been out of prison a short time when Garcia Thacker was killed.

Deputy Prosecutor Frank Jenny noted how Quintero’s crimes all are linked to guns.

“Clearly he has been on a very dangerous path for a long time, and it ultimately resulted in a death,” Jenny said in court.

The 16-year term was at the top of the standard range given Quintero’s history. The only discretion Judge Runge had in sentencing was giving less time, starting at about 12 years.

Runge agreed with Jenny, and questioned what it’s going to take to make Quintero change the path he is on.

“You are young. While 194 months may seem like a long time, you are still going to be a young man, able to walk out of prison, continue living your life, something that George is never going to have,” she said. “You have hope. That is certainly more than George has.”

The victim’s father had a very valid question in asking, “Why did you have to take a life?” Runge said.

“Frankly, after all these years presiding over all these cases, regardless of what your answers would be to that question, it would not satisfy anyone in this courtroom,” she said. When it comes to murder or, in this case, manslaughter, “There is no excuse.”

This story was originally published August 7, 2017 at 11:24 AM with the headline "UPDATE: Convicted killer gets 16 years for shooting Pasco teen."