Warren pleads guilty to kidnapping

Crime tied to Cascade Valley shooting

EPHRATA — A Moses Lake woman admitted participation in the kidnapping of a teenage girl in early January, an abduction tied to a double shooting in Moses Lake's Cascade Valley.

Christina Lee Warren, 24, who was charged with first-degree kidnapping, pleaded guilty before Grant County Superior Court Judge John Antosz on Tuesday as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Her charge was lowered to second-degree kidnapping in exchange for a lengthy and detailed statement to authorities about events leading up to the shooting.

Frankie Corral Jr., 25, Othello, was murdered at a Cascade Valley duplex on Jan. 2, the Grant County Sheriff's Office reported. An autopsy showed he died of multiple gunshot wounds to the torso.

Scotty R. Slenker, 20, Moses Lake, was also shot at the duplex, in the 8000 block of Road 4.2-N.E. He survived.

Currently the only person accused of shooting Corral is 25-year-old Christian Alberto Gonzalez-Ramirez, who is charged with first-degree murder and is held in Grant County Jail.

Privately authorities indicate Gonzalez-Ramirez, of Warden, may soon plead guilty to second-degree murder as part of an agreement with prosecutors.

Slenker, while recovering in the hospital, told a sheriff's office detective that Gonzalez-Ramirez shot him, too.

Warren agreed to testify against anybody who goes to trial for the shootings, Grant County Prosecutor John Knodell said Thursday.

Prosecutors would like to charge two other people, not necessarily with murder, but with crimes arising from Corral's death, Knodell said.

Warren agreed to cooperate with the investigation of those two individuals, the prosecutor said.

Knodell recommended Warren receive a one-year sentence, as part of the deal, the low end of the standard prison term for kidnapping.

Warren is scheduled to be sentenced May 8 in Grant County Superior Court.

There are other charges pending against Warren, unrelated to Corral's murder, Knodell said.

The Jan. 2 kidnapping, of Corral's teenage girlfriend, occurred a few hours prior to the shootings. The girl's abductors, including Warren, tried to use her to locate Corral, court records show.

The girl told authorities she was taken to an unknown residence, kept restrained, had chunks of her hair lopped off, and was repeatedly told Gonzalez-Ramirez intended to kill her boyfriend.

The girl described for investigators how her abductors at one point resorted to using her mobile phone to text message Corral, in an attempt to lure him to a Moses Lake park to be killed.

Corral was eventually found at the duplex, confronted and shot. A sheriff's office detective's affidavit shows Gonzalez-Ramirez reported being robbed by Corral in August 2006.

Slenker told a detective that Gonzalez-Ramirez shot Corral in retribution "because 'Frank jacked him and made him look like a (expletive) in front of everyone,'" according to court documents.