Leyva sentenced to almost 22 years for murder

MOSES LAKE — “Why did you do it, Margarito?” Rosa Gonzalez, the mother of murder victim Juan Gonzalez Jr., asked the man who shot and killed her son. “Why couldn’t you walk away like a human being with any sense? Or dealt with it like a man? Why? Did you think you were going to get away with it?”

Margarito Leyva did not respond to the impassioned questions on Tuesday during his sentencing hearing. Despite not responding to the question of why, he did, in a letter read before the court by his attorney, apologize for the pain and hardship his decision to shoot and kill Gonzalez had on Gonzalez’ family.

“One reckless decision has hurt so many people. I know there are no words that will help make up for your loss. But I am sorry for what your family has went through. If I could take it back I would,” reads Leyva’s letter.

Leyva previously entered a guilty plea in Grant County Superior Court to second-degree murder in mid-April. He was initially charged with first-degree murder, but the charge was amended in a plea agreement due to several uncooperative witnesses and recent first-degree murder jury trials in Grant County resulting in convictions of second-degree murder. The charge carried with it a standard sentencing range of 175 months to 275 months in prison.

Leyva was before the court on Tuesday for his sentencing. The prosecution and defense previously reached a joint recommendation of 21 years in prison. Grant County Superior Court Judge John Antosz went above the recommendation and sentenced Leyva to 21 years and 10 months in prison.

“I don’t think that any sentence that the court gives, whether it’s a certain number, or higher or lower, equates to that loss. To just put a number on what has happened, a number of months for a sentence, does not equate with what was lost,” Antosz told Gonzalez' family.

“I know it’s difficult, especially for a mother to lose a child it’s said by many that it’s the most difficult grief to recover from because it’s unnatural. Everyone expects to have their children live longer than them.”

Gonzalez’ mother said her son had his problems, but the father of five was trying to turn his life around.

“My son was a good man, with lots of demons I know. He was haunted by a lot of things. But he was trying to straighten up his life for the sake of his kids.”

Gonzalez, 38, of Spokane, was shot and killed at the College Apartments in Moses Lake in the evening hours of Sept. 4, 2015. A witness told investigators Leyva confronted Gonzalez about a missing Seattle Seahawks jersey and music box.

The two men got into a brief shoving match and at some point Leyva brandished a gun. Gonzalez allegedly told Leyva if he was going to pull a gun on him he should be “man enough to pull the trigger too.” Leyva then lowered the gun down from Gonzalez’ face and shot him in the stomach. Gonzalez ultimately passed away from the wound the next morning at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane.

Leyva and his girlfriend were on the run for a couple of days and able to evade capture until deputies and a team of U.S. Marshals found them at a motel in Pasco.