Tri-Cities ‘enforcer’ heading to prison after attacking, robbing man

A 34-year-old woman, who has been called an ‘enforcer’ by local prosecutors, is heading back to prison for chasing, beating and shooting a man during a robbery in Pasco.

Guadalupe A. Sanchez pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and second-degree robbery after attacking a 46-year-old man. Sanchez and her two nieces left the man with a broken nose, welts on his head and a wound on his elbow where a bullet grazed him.

Sanchez has a lengthy history of felony activity dating back more than nine years. It includes a conviction for rendering criminal assistance when she helped two men hide the body of a West Richland mother in 2018. She also has convictions for assault, witness tampering, harassment and bail jumping.

She faced between six and eight years in prison.

Judge Jacqueline Stam followed the prosecutor’s recommendation and sentenced Sanchez to the minimum end of the range, along with a year and a half of probation.

Sanchez’s nieces Evenie M. Landa-Riojas, 22, and Elisett Landa-Riojas, 21, had previously pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment, fourth-degree assault and criminal mischief. They were both sentenced to 46 days in jail.

Pasco Robbery, Assault

Sanchez and her nieces admitted to attacking a man inside a Marie Street home May 15.

Sanchez pointed a small white pistol at his chest and told him “she could kill him,” according to court documents.

The nieces reportedly said they were gang members and, “He didn’t know who he was messing with.” They started hitting him and Sanchez joined in, police said. It’s unclear how they knew him.

The man and another person fled the house, but the women gave chase and continued the attack, said investigators.

Sanchez took the man’s phone and kept hitting him. Her nieces and another man also were involved, said court documents.

When the victim fell to the ground, Sanchez pointed the gun at him and fired, grazing his elbow, prosecutors said.

Officers found the injured man about 11:45 p.m. near the corner of 18th Avenue and West Henry Street, court documents said.

2018 murder

Sanchez was sentenced in 2019 for helping dispose of Michelle Hudnall’s body in the Columbia River in 2018.

The body was found in the river near Carbody Beach about two months after she went missing.

Sanchez, along with her boyfriend Benny Rodriguez Lozano Jr., both eventually pleaded guilty to playing a role in Hudnall’s death.

Sanchez was sentenced to a year and three months in prison. Lozano pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

A third man, Florentino Jai Castillo, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit first-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Kennewick assault

Last December, Sanchez pleaded guilty to assaulting a woman in a trailer in Kennewick and was sentenced to 70 days in jail, court documents said.

The victim told investigators she found Sanchez with a gun inside her trailer on Sept. 29 and was taken to a detached garage about half a mile away. She told police Sanchez took her phone and purse and tried to take a necklace she was wearing.

Sanchez held her for eight hours, pointing the gun at her several times and also hitting her before she was able to escape and call police, said court documents.

Witness tampering

Sanchez also has a witness tampering conviction after she threatened a domestic violence victim to change her story.

Ramon Jaimes-Galvez kidnapped the woman at gunpoint in July 2022, beating her and using a hot clothes hanger to brand her.

He called Sanchez from jail to get her to threaten the victim. Sanchez forced the woman to undress and hit and threatened her while armed with a gun.

Court documents said Sanchez finally freed the woman after she gave a taped statement recanting her allegations against Jaimes-Galvez.

Sanchez eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year and eight months.

Jaimes-Galvez also pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced to just under five years in prison.