A Vancouver man was sentenced Wednesday to 36 years in prison for the near-fatal shooting of his ex-best friend at the Bi-Lo Market in Hazel Dell.
Jose Gasteazoro-Paniagua, 33, shot Jose Muro five times, including once in the forehead, on Dec. 30, 2009. The victim, a store clerk shelving beer at the time, was taken to Southwest Washington Medical Center and survived.
Gasteazoro-Paniagua had tracked Muro down at his job following a dispute over a woman dating both Gasteazoro-Paniagua and Muro’s younger brother.
“It’s a brutal crime,” Clark County Superior Court Judge Rich Melnick said before imposing the sentence, which included five years for a weapon enhancement. “This was a cold-blooded, execution-style attack.”
A jury convicted Gasteazoro-Paniagua June 29 of first-degree attempted murder and first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.
The crux of the state’s case was testimony of a jailhouse informant. Garold T. Jacobsen testified how Gasteazoro-Paniagua confessed to the shooting in excruciating detail while the two were in the Clark County Jail this spring.
Defense attorney Charles Buckley was arguing for a lower sentence of 29 years, saying it was sufficient time for an attempted murder, especially when compared to informant Jacobsen’s potential punishment.
Jacobsen is currently awaiting a Nov. 15 trial in the Charles N. Moore homicide case, though he told jurors he planned to take a plea deal.
Twenty-nine years “is a significant sentence,” Buckley said. “The main witness against my client faces 10 years and he was involved in a murder case.”
Gasteazoro-Paniagua, leaning back in his chair and smirking, did not appear to be fazed about the punishment. As Deputy Prosecutor Kasey Vu discussed the sentencing range, Gasteazoro-Paniagua turned and said sarcastically to Buckley: “That’s it?”
After the judge ordered him to pay more than $25,000 in restitution, Gasteazoro-Paniagua said: “I feel like I’m buying a car.”
He didn’t react when Melnick went into detail about how he thought it was a miracle Muro survived the shooting.
“This whole case perplexes me,” the judge said. “I don’t understand how you can take a .45 in the forehead and stomach and live.”
Seated in the courtroom benches behind attorneys, the victim’s family explained it to the judge with one word: “God.”
At the June trial, jurors convicted Gasteazoro-Paniagua without Muro’s eyewitness identification — he said after surgery he didn’t remember who shot him — and without any physical evidence.
Prosecutor Vu, instead, relied heavily on testimony from Muro’s family members to show the defendant was the only person who had the motive. The defendant also had been seen with a .45-caliber pistol, which matched the weapon, days before the shooting, jurors were told at trial.
Laura McVicker: 360-735-4516 or laura.mcvicker@columbian.com.
