Mejia sentenced in drive-thru murder

EPHRATA — A Moses Lake woman received a 47-day sentence for her role in a January 2015 incident outside of a fast food restaurant that left 22-year-old Christian Guerra dead.

Martha Mejia, 36, of Moses Lake, pleaded guilty to first-degree negligent driving and entered an Alford plea to fourth-degree assault. In an Alford plea a defendant is not pleading guilty to a crime, but believes they would be found guilty if the case were to proceed to trial. Mejia previously pleaded guilty to felony DUI, but Grant County Superior Court Judge John Antosz allowed the defendant to withdraw the plea and enter the guilty plea to the negligent driving charge, according to Chief Deputy Prosecutor Alan White.

Following a joint recommendation between White and defense attorney Rafael Gonzales, Antosz sentenced Mejia to 90 days in jail, with 43 days suspended for two years on the negligent driving charge and 364 days in jail, with 317 days suspended for two years on the assault charge. The two sentences are set to run concurrently, leaving Mejia with a total of 47 days to serve. Antosz ruled Mejia, if eligible and approved, can serve her sentence via home detention/electronic monitoring.

In November Mejia’s husband, Jason Williams, was sentenced to 40 years in prison by Grant County Superior Court Judge David Estudillo after he was previously convicted of second-degree murder and three counts of first degree assault by a jury in mid-September following Guerra’s two-week murder trial.

A few hours before his death in January 2015 Guerra had gone to Neppel’s Dockside Pub with some of his friends. Williams and Mejia were at the bar as well, but the two groups left after a fight broke out. Williams claimed he and Mejia left in their GMC Yukon and were followed by a Ford Fusion, which Guerra was a passenger in. Williams said he was leery and suspicious of the Fusion so he pulled into the Jack in the Box parking lot and went into the drive-thru lane.

The driver of the Fusion pulled up behind the Yukon, blocking the SUV in the drive-thru. The Yukon attempted to back up and leave, which caused the driver of the Fusion to start honking the vehicle’s horn. Mejia got out of the Yukon and confronted the group of people in the Fusion.

Guerra and another male hopped out of the Fusion and became involved in a physical confrontation with Williams. Guerra got back into the Fusion after the fight and the driver backed out of the drive-thru. He got out of the vehicle a second time and got into another fight with Williams.

Guerra retreated back to the Fusion for a second time after the fight, but got back out after Williams approached the vehicle with a 9mm pistol in his left hand. During Williams’ trial, prosecutors argued Guerra approached Williams in an attempt to defuse the situation.

Williams walked toward Guerra and opened fire, then took a few more steps and shot him again. He then proceeded to fire several shots at the Fusion, the reason for the three first-degree assault counts. Guerra later passed away at Samaritan Hospital from the gunshot wounds.

Williams’ defense attorney, John Crowley, argued Guerra was the initiator in the conflict and Williams was acting in self-defense to protect himself and Mejia.