EVERETT — Loved ones of two teens killed at a Lynnwood park in 2022 were left distraught after an admitted gang member who pleaded guilty to their murders received an unusually lenient sentence on Tuesday morning.
Alexis “Alex” Pacheco Monrroy, 19, will spend just six years behind bars and then be put on probation under a unique sentence handed down by Judge Joseph Wilson in Snohomish County Superior Court.
Pacheco Monrroy, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, is one of three people charged with murdering Jesus Sanchez Camunas Jr., 16, and Tidus Linville-Goodwin, 15, in a drive-by shooting at Spruce Park in Lynnwood on July 14, 2022. He pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder earlier this year.
Prosecutors recommended the teen spend more than 25 years in prison. Instead, Pacheco Monrroy will be out of custody at the age of 25.
“This was not any type of justice at all,” said Bridgett Linville, Tidus’ mother, as she wept outside the courtroom. “My poor son.”
Wilson sentenced Pacheco Monrroy to more than 30 years, but much of that sentence will be suspended. Instead, the judge ordered the teen to be held by the state’s Juvenile Rehabilitation division until he is 25, then he will be put on probation that the judge promised to oversee himself for the remainder of the sentence.
“I am guided in my ruling that I can’t just throw a kid away,” Wilson said before delivering the sentence. “We can’t just lock him up for life. He has to be given a reasonable opportunity, and I understand he did not give a reasonable opportunity to his victims.”
Prosecutors objected to Wilson’s ruling and questioned whether the judge had the legal authority for the uncommon sentence.
“This manner of a sentence hasn’t been done before,” Wilson responded. “But if we are to address these things, the trial courts have to be given some ability to deal with what we are consistently dealing with because the choices I have been given have all been insufficient.”
Family and friends of the two teen victims were already opposed to a proposed sentencing agreement of about 25 years before learning of Wilson’s decision. Second-degree murder carries a maximum life sentence. Pacheco Monrroy’s crimes, which included aggravators for using a gun and committing the crime as part of his gang membership, could’ve carried a maximum standard sentence of more than 46 years and a minimum of over 30 years.
“You ended everything for him,” Bridgett Linville said to Pacheco Monrroy during victim impact statements. “You hurt my family. We are the ones who have to live a lifetime of pain. It hurts to breathe sometimes. We are the ones that truly are getting a life sentence.”
Investigators said Pacheco Monrroy along with two other men, Jose Beteran, 31, and Christian Chavez, 27, killed the teens as retaliation for a string of violence between rival gangs, including a shooting involving Pacheco Monrroy the day before.
Witnesses told police the suspects asked the teen victims what gang they represented, according to court documents. When Sanchez Camunas Jr. responded that he was in a rival gang, the group allegedly opened fire killing the teens. Beteran, who is Pacheco Monroy’s cousin, and Chavez have both pleaded not guilty to all charges.
As part of his plea, Pacheco Monrroy admitted the shootings were part of his affiliation with the gang “Doble,” also known as WBP. He apologized in court on Tuesday, telling the judge he was blinded by emotions from the violence the day before.
“I understand now that I was not seeing them as people in that moment, I was seeing them through my anger,” the 19-year-old said. “Calling it a mistake is not enough, it was a choice I made.”
Wilson weighed Pacheco Monrroy’s age at the time of the shooting, his upbringing in an environment surrounded by gangs and an intellectual disability that wasn’t diagnosed in the teen until after his arrest.
“We want the court to know that Alex is not a heartless person,” Emily Hiskes, a public defender representing Pacheco Monrroy, said before sentencing. “He is a young man that is the product of his circumstances. He is a young man that has never had a chance and we ask you to give him that chance.”
Wilson said this sentencing provided Pacheco Monrroy with a meaningful chance to be rehabilitated. He said the superior court would monitor Pacheco Monrroy’s behavior after his release on probation and reserved the right to unsuspend his sentence to send him back to prison if he did not show any signs of change.
“I will look at the future when the future comes, when the facts are in front of me,” Wilson said. “At that point in time, we’ll have a better idea of what’s going on with the defendant.”
Ian Davis-Leonard: 425-339-3097; ian.davis-leonard@heraldnet.com
