Jury returns guilty verdict in Christmas Eve murder case

Jurors did not care if Francisco J. Munoz Quintero struggled with his ex-girlfriend before shooting her on Christmas Eve.

“He was guilty when he pulled out the gun to assault her,” said Benton County Prosecutor Andy Miller.

That’s what the jury told Miller when they met with him Tuesday, shortly after the verdict was announced in Benton County Superior Court.

The 12 jurors took less than three hours to convict Munoz Quintero of second-degree murder.

They also found that Munoz Quintero used a gun in the crime and had been in a dating relationship with Luisa A. Garcia Farias, along with the aggravating circumstances of domestic violence and that the crime had a destructive and foreseeable impact on others.

The couple’s 22-month-old daughter, Aliah, was in the backseat of the car when her mother was shot twice.

Munoz Quintero, 20, claims he asked Garcia Farias to get back together with him during a car ride from Mabton to Kennewick late Dec. 24.

But after firing the two shots — one bullet grazing her left arm and the other piercing several vital organs — he left his child’s mother in the middle of a dark Kennewick street and drove off. He returned to Mabton to leave the toddler with a relative, then went to a friend for help, turning himself in 19 hours later.

On Tuesday, Munoz Quintero showed no emotion at the verdict.

Across the courtroom, Garcia Farias’ mom, Maria, broke down in tears. Her 21-year-old daughter and granddaughter had been living in her basement in Pasco.

Miller told the Herald that by getting to know the victim’s sisters, Yahida and Paula, through trial preparation, and her mother during the trial, he felt like he really got to know what Garcia Farias was like more than in some other homicide cases.

“That really struck me, and I think that made the verdict especially gratifying today,” he said.

Defense attorneys Alexandria Sheridan and Scott Johnson did not want to comment Tuesday because the sentencing is still pending. It’s tentatively set for June 3.

Munoz is facing 18 to 23 years in state prison, which includes a five-year mandatory term for using a gun.

However, Miller can ask for more time, and he said he will, because jurors agreed there were aggravating circumstances.

Earlier on Tuesday during closing arguments, Johnson argued that no one but the couple really knows what happened because they were alone in the car.

He said prosecutors have a theory but it only fills in the blanks about the couple’s whereabouts and relationship before Dec. 24.

“We have some hunches, we have some guesses, we have some speculation, but no one knows exactly what happened inside that vehicle based upon the evidence in this case,” Johnson said.

The witnesses “couldn’t tell you if there was an argument, if there was a struggle, if there was an accident or if it was on purpose,” he continued. “They just don’t know. They weren’t there. All they could tell you is (Munoz Quintero and Garcia Farias) had a tumultuous relationship, and she died.”

Johnson told jurors that he expected them to have sympathy for Garcia Farias and for her family, but said that shouldn’t control the verdict.

He also acknowledged there were times in his client’s life that he had mistreated Garcia Farias, but said the jury wasn’t being asked to condone his treatment of his ex or to like his conduct.

“This is a sad case. We’d all be better off if we didn’t have to pass judgment on this case, but we do,” Miller argued. “(Munoz Quintero) put us in this position by his decision to assault Luisa Garcia and by firing his handgun twice, shooting and killing Luisa.”

Deputy Prosecutor Anita Petra pointed out that Munoz Quintero had no defensive wounds on his hands or body because he meant to fire the two shots.

There were three people in the car that “frightful night” — one is dead, another is now age 2 and the third is guilty of murder based on direct and circumstantial evidence, she argued.

“We know it wasn’t an accident that night because you got to hear what (Munoz Quintero) has done in the past to create fear in Luisa,” Petra told jurors.

“You’ve heard that he’s assaulted her. You’ve heard that he’s choked her. You’ve heard that he has no problem bringing guns out in a vehicle,” she added. “(Munoz Quintero) had motive and intent that night, and he acted on it.”

This story was originally published May 24, 2016 at 4:04 PM with the headline "Jury returns guilty verdict in Christmas Eve murder case."