18-year sentence for Jill Sundberg murder suspect

EPHRATA — One of three suspects in the 2016 murder of Quincy resident Jill Sundberg will be spending over 18 years behind prison bars.

Ambrosio Mendez Villanueva, 26, previously pleaded guilty in Grant County Superior Court to the amended charged of second-degree murder. Mendez Villanueva was initially charged with first-degree murder, but the charge was amended in a plea agreement.

Following a joint recommendation between Deputy Prosecutor Kevin McCrae and defense attorney Brian Gwinn, Judge John Hotchkiss sentenced Mendez Villanueva to 220 months, a little over 18 years, in prison. Because the defendant is an immigrant in the country illegally, he will be deported from the country after he serves his sentence.

Sundberg’s mother, who was given an opportunity to address the court on Monday, said she doesn't feel justice is being served for her daughter with the given sentence.

“Someone who could actively participate in such a brutal act is a monster. Do you feel the maximum of 18 years is enough? I don’t. Your honor, justice or not, I do not forgive him,” Janet Sundberg told Hotchkiss.

“I do not believe he should receive any compassion or understanding, because he certainly didn’t show any to my daughter.”

Mendez Villanueva’s co-defendant and the alleged shooter in the Sundberg murder, Gustavo Tapia Rodriguez, 40, is currently charged with first-degree murder, with aggravating circumstances of armed with a firearm, acting with deliberate cruelty, drive-by shooting and kidnapping, and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.

A second co-defendant, Julio Cesar Albarran Varona, 26, is charged with first-degree murder, with aggravating circumstances of armed with a firearm, acting with deliberate cruelty, drive-by shooting and kidnapping, and, in the lesser, second-degree murder. The cases for the two men, who remain jailed in lieu of $1 million bail apiece, are scheduled to head to trial April 11.

Sundberg’s body was located Dec. 22, 2016 near a rest area on the Old Vantage Highway, near George. Court documents state Sundberg and Tapia Rodriguez were involved in an argument at the Shady Tree RV Park, near Quincy, and she was kidnapped and forced into an SUV.

The SUV stopped near the Old Vantage Highway and Tapia Rodriguez allegedly shot Sundberg over a dozen times. Investigators reportedly found a total of 13 .40-caliber shell casings near Sundberg’s body. After the shooting Mendez Villanueva affixed a handwritten note, which contains a reference to a Mexican drug cartel, to Sundberg’s body with a knife.

All three murder suspects are in the country illegally, according to the Grant County Sheriff’s Office.