UPDATE: Umatilla man guilty of 3 Benton County murders

Francisco Resendez Miranda will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a Benton County jury found the Umatilla man guilty on Monday of killing three Pasco friends last year.

Family and friends of David Perez-Saucedo, Abigail Torres-Renteria and Victoria Torres closed their eyes and wept as the verdicts were read Monday afternoon.

“I was praying,” said Jesse Orlando Mercado Retana, a close family friend of Torres. “At the same time, I had the names of Victoria, Abigail and David in my head. I just kept praying and praying.”

The jury convicted Resendez Miranda, 24, of three counts of aggravated first-degree murder after deliberating for nearly 15 hours over three days.

The verdict comes more than a year after the victims were found shot to death in a rural cornfield after they’d driven to Oregon earlier in the evening.

In addition, jurors found the aggravating circumstance that the crime involved several victims. The jury did not find that Resendez Miranda knew Torres-Renteria was almost nine months pregnant when she was killed.

As Resendez Miranda was led from the courtroom, Prosecutor Andy Miller took time to console the victims’ grieving families.

“We can’t bring their children or grandchildren back,” Miller said. “Two of (the families) are raising children from the victims. It’s been a very hard thing for them.”

Miller and the defense team of Shane Silverthorn and John Chambers met with jurors after the verdict was announced.

Miller said jurors seemed to thoroughly review all the evidence, which included testimony from dozens of witnesses, videos from several convenience stores and forensic analysis from the Washington State Patrol crime lab.

Prosecutors presented evidence during trial that the August 2014 murders were revenge for a break-in at Resendez Miranda’s apartment.

Resendez Miranda, his family members and others were seen on video with the victims at an Umatilla gas station shortly after the nighttime break-in. Jurors heard testimony that the group chased Perez-Saucedo’s SUV to the gas station from the apartment.

The victims were reportedly driven from the gas station back to the apartment. Their bodies were discovered hours later in the cornfield.

Resendez Miranda and Perez-Saucedo knew each other from work at Wyckoff Farms. Witnesses testified that the two were friends, and Resendez Miranda sometimes sold methamphetamine to Perez-Saucedo.

Resendez Miranda was apparently angry about the break-in and felt like it showed disrespect toward his family. His two brothers and father also stayed at the apartment and are still wanted for questioning in connection with the murders, but may have fled the U.S.

Shoe prints matching Resendez Miranda’s were found near the bodies, and a tank top with Torres’ blood was discovered at Resendez Miranda’s apartment, according to testimony from forensic scientists.

Also, a former friend testified that Resendez Miranda admitted to the killings and threw Perez-Saucedo’s cellphone into the Columbia River.

Miller told the Herald that many witnesses in the case were scared to testify at trial, and it took courage for them to show up knowing other suspects have not been arrested yet.

“We spent a lot of time in peoples’ living rooms talking to them about the need for them to come,” Miller said. “This was a triple murder execution style and most of the murderers are on the loose, so it did take courage for the witnesses to come forward.”

Miller vowed to continue the hunt for Resendez Miranda’s family members, Fidel Miranda-Huitron, Eduardo Miranda-Resendez and Fernada De Jesus Miranda-Resendez.

The men are believed to have gone to Mexico shortly after the killings.

Mercado Retana said the verdict Monday gives the victims’ families hope that the suspects will be brought to justice.

“We got faith the other ones will be found,” he said.

This story was originally published November 23, 2015 at 3:06 PM with the headline "UPDATE: Umatilla man guilty of 3 Benton County murders."