A Vancouver teenager was sentenced Wednesday in Clark County Superior Court to nearly 3 1/2 years in prison for striking a woman and firing a gun into a vehicle in Camas.
Enrique J. Espinoza-Mendoza, 19, originally faced three counts of first-degree assault and a single count of unlawful possession of a firearm, but his charges were amended as part of a plea deal.
Judge Daniel Stahnke sentenced Espinoza-Mendoza to 41 months on two counts of assault and the gun charge. His prison term was extended by a year due to his use of a deadly weapon.
The incident “could have ended up much worse,” Deputy Prosecutor Deb Wechselblatt said in requesting the agreed-upon sentence.
Espinoza-Mendoza was also sentenced in a separate case involving marijuana possession and taking a motor vehicle without permission in March. He received 20 months in prison, but the sentence will run concurrently with the assault case.
Camas police officers were dispatched shortly after midnight June 24 to reports of shots fired in the 1800 block of Northwest Astor Court. According to a probable cause affidavit, one of the callers told police they heard two to three shots and then two vehicles sped away in front of their home.
Arriving officers found shattered tinted glass in the road near parked cars. They also found two shell casings and a live round in the street nearby, according to the affidavit.
While on scene, Sgt. Scot Boyles, who wrote the affidavit, spoke with a woman who had called 911 about the shooting. She said Espinoza-Mendoza pistol whipped her friend and fired two rounds, striking the van she was in at the time, according to the affidavit.
Boyles separately interviewed two witnesses who told identical stories. They said they were leaving a party in Camas when Espinoza-Mendoza pulled up in a car, pulled out a gun and stuck it in the face of Matt Cash, who they’d come there with, according to the affidavit.
Defense attorney Neil Anderson read a letter written by Cash in support of Espinoza-Mendoza during the sentencing hearing. Cash, who is currently serving four years for attempted robbery, said he was not negatively impacted by the gun threat; he described Espinoza-Mendoza as “truly a good guy.”
Police caught up with Espinoza-Mendoza at his mother’s house in Vancouver. He said he had consumed alcohol and Xanax on the night of the shooting and was “having a hard time remembering exactly what happened,” the affidavit says.
Police asked to search Espinoza-Mendoza’s room and found a handgun under a mattress. Espinoza-Mendoza said the gun was his and the same one used in the Camas shooting, according to the affidavit.
On Wednesday, Espinoza-Mendoza told the judge he had six months to think about what he’d done.
“I’m sincerely sorry about my behavior,” he said.
