The 15-year-old gang member thought a friend had been "disrespected," so he emptied all six bullets in the Ruger .357 revolver toward a group of innocent people at Gresham's Red Sunset Park.
The bullets whizzed past a couple with a 5-day-old baby. A 22-year-old man who realized he'd been shot in the leg managed to run the three-quarters of a mile to the emergency room at Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center. And a 33-year-old man fell dead.
During a hearing Thursday in Multnomah County Circuit Court -- the shooter, Reynaldo Antonio Ceja -- nearly fell out of his chair as, handcuffed, he wiped away tears listening to the sister and the wife of the dead man talk about their loss.
Ceja, now 17, pleaded guilty to using a gun to murder Paulino "Paul" Venancio-Lopez on July 5, 2013. Ceja also pleaded guilty to the attempted aggravated murder of Omar Merino-Lopez.
Ceja was sentenced to 10 years in prison for wounding Merino-Lopez. But he could be sentenced to more time at a February 2016 hearing for the murder of Venancio-Lopez.
Neither the prosecutor nor Ceja's defense attorney would say what sentence Ceja is likely to get for the murder plea. The law allows for a maximum of life in prison with the possibility of release after 25 years.
Authorities say Ceja had shown up at the park to to retaliate against someone who had beaten up a fellow gang member at the park the day before. But authorities say he targeted the wrong people:
Venancio-Lopez, the man who died, didn't know Ceja. He had no criminal history and no gang associations. He was a married father of two young children, worked two jobs and loved to play basketball whenever he had a chance, his family said.
Venancio-Lopez was part of a group of people playing basketball at the park. Authorities don't believe any of them were involved in the previous day's beating of the gang member.
It was about 9:45 p.m. and the game had ended. That's when Ceja and two friends walked up, police say. Merino-Lopez, who was the man shot in the leg, told police that someone in the group asked, "Where you fools from?" and "You bang?" Then Ceja opened fire.
Brian Hernandez-Cardona, then 17, was arrested with the murder weapon less than two hours later in a car in Beaverton. He told police that he had loaded the gun and handed it to Ceja.
Hernandez-Cardona, now 19, also pleaded guilty Thursday to murder and attempted aggravated murder. He will be sentenced in February 2016, although it's not clear what his sentence will be.
Ceja was arrested two days after the shooting at his pregnant girlfriend's Estacada home. Ceja told police that he was a member of the "Playboys" gang, and that when asked to seek out revenge for his fellow gang member, "I couldn't say no."
At Thursday's hearing, Venancio-Lopez's widow -- Diane Arriola -- addressed the court via speakerphone. She said the couple's two children were 1 1/2 and 3 years old when their dad died. They constantly wonder why he's not there, she said.
"They're just so heartbroken," Arriola said. "They ask for their daddy, and I say 'He's with the angels.'"
Venancio-Lopez's sister said her brother was working two jobs to make a better life for his children. She gave the judge photos of the children with their father, and asked that Ceja look through them.
"I know that we're passengers in life -- that one day we all will die -- but not like that, in such a horrible way," Isabel Venancio-Lopez said through a Spanish interpreter.
Ceja's defense attorney, Ronnee Kliewer, said her client was overcome with remorse. Ceja feels for the dead man's children, she said, especially because Ceja is now the father of a 1-year-old girl.
"I know I can't take nothing back," Ceja said. "I want to say I'm sorry. ... I am accepting responsibility."
-- Aimee Green
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