A Vancouver man pleaded guilty Friday to second-degree murder in the shooting death of his roommate and was sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison.
David Salgado, 20, was originally charged with first-degree murder after investigators said he lured one roommate away from their Bagley Downs neighborhood apartment in order to kill his other roommate, Fernando Cendejas, on May 9, according to court records.
However, the attorneys in the case said that because the evidence was circumstantial — placing Salgado at the scene of the killing but having no witnesses placing the gun in his hand — they agreed to a plea deal that included the lesser charge, saving Salgado from a possible life sentence.
Salgado, Cendejas and Cendejas’ brother, Amador Patino, lived together at the Ashley Terrace Apartments, 4500 Nicholson Road.
Patino found his brother dead on the couch in the early morning hours of May 9. Cendejas had been shot multiple times, and police reported that he had a gunshot wound to the head, court records show.
Patino told detectives that he had gotten a call from Salgado to meet up for food shortly before midnight. Patino went to the restaurant, he said, but when Salgado didn’t show, he came back to the apartment about 30 minutes later to find his brother dead, the affidavit said.
Detectives interviewed Salgado, who told them he had also discovered Cendejas’ body in the apartment, court records said. However, surveillance footage from a neighboring apartment captured the sound of gunshots followed by a man who resembled Salgado leaving the apartment, according to court documents.
Detectives also obtained a search warrant for Salgado’s cellphone and recovered time-stamped photos of him posing with a semi-automatic pistol around the time of the shooting, court records said. GPS data placed Salgado at the apartment within 10 minutes of the shooting, the affidavit states.
Salgado was arrested more than two months later by the U.S. Marshals Pacific Southwest Fugitive Task Force in Venice Beach in Southern California. Police say that Salgado tried to jump into the ocean to avoid being detained.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Aaron Bartlett said that given the circumstantial nature of the case, this was a good outcome.
“There were no eyewitnesses to who pulled the trigger,” he said. Bartlett added that it wasn’t guaranteed Patino would testify and that his testimony was important in establishing that the crime was premeditated.
No motive was ever established for the crime.
Bartlett said that the investigators had contact with the victim’s family early on in the case, but that the prosecuting attorney’s office never contacted with them.
When given the opportunity to speak during Friday’s hearing, Salgado declined to do so.
Clark County Judge Scott Collier said that he wasn’t going to upset the arrangements made by the attorneys in the case and accepted the plea and imposed the sentence.
