Kennewick suspect caught after beating woman at same house she’s accused of killing a man

A 25-year-old murder suspect was shocked she wouldn’t be getting out of jail in time for the weekend.

“That’s f--d up,” Katelynn “Trigger” Vinson exclaimed when she learned that prosecutors have until Tuesday to file charges for her rash of crimes, including a 2023 murder. She seemed to assume she would have been let out by Saturday or Sunday.

Vinson appeared in court by video from the Benton County jail Friday, a day after a high speed chase across the Tri-Cities that ended in the lawn of a Richland home.

Deputy Prosecutor Brittnie Roehm said they planned to charge Vinson before the Tuesday deadline, as she asked for Vinson to be held on more than $1 million bail.

Public defense attorney Charles Dow reserved arguing about bail.

Judge Diana Ruff agreed with the prosecutor’s request.

While Vinson qualifies to have a public defender, she said that she plans to hire an attorney. No attorney has told the court that they plan to represent her.

Vinson allegedly got into an argument with Daniel “Punisher” Bueno, 36, inside a home on the 2600 block of Sixth Avenue on Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023, according to court records. She allegedly followed him out to the truck and shot him under his arm while she was standing at the open passenger window.

A friend of Bueno called 911 about 9:45 p.m. to report that the father of two was wounded inside the cab of a Dodge pickup truck.

He was rushed to Trios Southridge Hospital in Kennewick where he died.

The case was one of five unsolved homicides in Benton County in 2023.

Vinson is well known to police, Commander Isaac Merkl told the Tri-City Herald.

She has been tied to a number of crimes across the Tri-Cities, including allegedly shooting at her ex-boyfriend in 2016 and eluding police in 2019.

Bueno’s Murder

While court records don’t explain what kicked off the argument, the results and the shooting were caught on a neighbor’s security camera.

The video shows Bueno stop in front of the house and go into the Sixth Avenue home. Shortly after he walked into home the argument started and lasted for 10 minutes.

“You can hear a male repeatedly saying ‘Triggs,’ which is Katelynn’s street name,” Detective Elizabeth Grant wrote in her affidavit of probable cause. “A female is telling a male to leave the residence and gives a countdown.”

As they continued to argue, Bueno can be seen walking out of the home and get into his truck. Katelynn appears on video walking down beside the house in the dark, watching Bueno, according to court documents.

Then she walked quickly over to the open passenger window and continued to argue with the man.

As she was standing at the open window, a gunshot can be heard, court records say.

“Katelynn runs from the truck and into the house, Bueno can be heard saying, ‘You f---g ho, you got me in the lungs,’” Grant wrote. “Katelynn can later be heard saying ‘Take your a-- to the f---g hospital and quit crying like a little b--h.’”

Vinson vanished from the house for a little over a month after the shooting, an informant told police. When she appeared again, she said it was “awkward” at the house, and that she “didn’t mean for it to go down like that. It was an accident.”

The Washington State Patrol Crime Lab identified Vinson’s DNA from a swab taken from the frame of the window on the truck.

Assault

Vinson is accused of beating another woman on Feb. 28 at the same Sixth Avenue home where she allegedly killed Bueno.

This time she allegedly knocked on the door of the home and when the woman answered the door, Vinson pushed her.

Then Vinson allegedly punched her in the face. When the woman fell on the couch, Vinson allegedly got on top of her and continued to hit her. Then Vinson got the other woman onto the ground and kicked her in the face.

During the attack, Vinson threatened to kill her if she ever saw her again.

The woman ran barefoot out of the house and to a nearby Circle K, where an employee called 911 for her.

There was also an unrelated SWAT standoff at the house earlier in the week when police were attempting to serve a warrant related to a kidnapping. The suspect was not arrested at that time.

Chase

Police had been looking for Vinson on Thursday in connection with Bueno’s murder and for the Feb. 28 attack and threats, according to court documents.

Detectives were watching a trailer on the 400 block of South Conway Street on Feb. 29 when Vinson walked out to throw away garbage.

Vinson’s mother was seen leaving the trailer and police believed signaled her daughter that officers were watching the house.

Within a minute, detectives saw the door to the trailer fly open and Katelyn sprinted to a car with Joe Gonzalez, 39. Detectives moved into to arrest Vinson, but the car sped out of the driveway and passed multiple patrol cars.

This kicked off a chase that reached 115 mph on Interstate 182, and 80 mph on Highway 395.

They were in Richland, when Gonzalez, the driver, bailed out of the car. And Vinson got into the driver’s seat. She continued speeding at up to 80 mph in residential Richland streets before the car fell apart at the corner of Lee Boulevard and Cottonwood Drive in Richland about 25 minutes after the case started.

Vinson was arrested and booked into jail on suspicion of second-degree murder, attempting to elude police, misdemeanor assault and felony harassment.

This story was originally published March 1, 2024 at 5:49 PM.