Kennewick kidnapper faces lengthy prison term

A California man faces at least 50 years in prison after terrorizing a Kennewick family five years ago when he forced his way into their home and ordered the father to open his jewelry store.

Vicente Guizar Figueroa, 21, already is doing 30 years in a Southern California prison for a nearly identical robbery outside Bakersfield.

And he and his brother are charged in Yakima with a similar crime involving the owner of a pawn shop in January 2011.

He will serve out the rest of that term before being moved to a Washington prison where, at a minimum, he will do a full 20 years for being armed with a gun when he helped steal $370,000 in jewelry from Touchstone Jewelers.

Figueroa told jurors at his recent Benton County Superior Court trial that investigators made a mistake, and he asked to be returned to Washington so he could face the charges and prove his innocence.

“I hadn’t done anything wrong,” he testified.

However, the jury did not believe him and returned guilty verdicts on nine felony counts.

Figueroa would have been 15 when he committed the first-degree robbery, vehicle theft, two counts of first-degree burglary and five counts of first-degree kidnapping in February 2011.

The burglary and robbery charges and one kidnapping count also include a gun enhancement. That carries a mandatory five-year term for each allegation.

Though Figueroa was one of three gunmen in the home invasion case, no one else has been charged.

Because his older brother, Humberto Guizar-Figueroa, was convicted in the California case, Deputy Prosecutor Terry Bloor said they have “a strong suspicion” he also did the crime in Kennewick.

“But we don’t have any physical evidence, fingerprints or DNA to corroborate that,” Bloor added.

Figueroa and his brother drove from Grandview, where their mother lived, to California in late spring 2011. He claimed in trial that he didn’t have any more information on the man — known only as “Alex” — who rode with the brothers to Bakersfield and participated in the June 2011 home invasion.

Figueroa and his brother admitted they watched a Bakersfield pawn shop for several days and even went inside to buy items, before following the owner home one night.

The front door was unlocked and the brothers went inside and held the family hostage. Their plan had been to take the husband to his pawn shop to steal gold and other valuables, but an older couple fled out a back bedroom and called authorities.

When Figueroa’s fingerprints were entered in the national database after his California arrest, it broke open the unsolved case in Kennewick four months earlier.

His fingerprints were identified on three pieces of paper found in the victim’s abandoned car.

That paper reportedly was on a clipboard Figueroa and another suspect used as they claimed to be with a power company and asked to get inside the Kennewick home to check some things.

They were told to come back later, but pushed their way inside and pulled out guns while donning face masks.

The men held Mark Welsh’s wife, two daughters and 6-month-old grandson hostage until Welsh came home. Then, as a third man watched the family, the first two gunmen took Welsh to his Clearwater Avenue store in Marineland Village and ordered him to disarm the alarm, turn off the lights and open the safe.

The robbers took the entire jewelry inventory, which was never recovered.

Figueroa’s sentencing range on all of the charges combined is from 49 years and five months to 59 years and two months. Sentencing is Aug. 4.

Bloor said he and Deputy Prosecutor Kristin McRoberts haven’t decided what they will recommend to the judge.

Prosecutors can ask for less than the range, or even recommend that some of the Washington time be served at the same time with the California sentence, but the judge will have no discretion on imposing the mandatory 20-year gun term.

“We would consider the defendant’s age and how much time he received in California, and we’ll talk to the victims before coming up with a recommendation,” Bloor said.

This story was originally published July 31, 2016 at 7:52 PM with the headline "Kennewick kidnapper faces lengthy prison term."