Shooter in 2016 Aloha killing sentenced to life in prison

Article author: 
Everton Bailey Jr
Article publisher: 
OregonLive.com
Article date: 
Friday, October 20, 2017
Article category: 
Crime
Medium
Article Body: 

A 22-year-old man was sentenced Thursday to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years for fatally shooting another man in Aloha in June 2016.

Roger Gastelum-Medina, standing in an orange jail uniform...apologized for killing 21-year-old Yusuf Sharif of Beaverton after an argument.

"I just want to say I'm sorry," he said. "I'm really sorry for everything."

Gastelum-Medina and Sharif knew each other before the shooting and both regularly used and sold methamphetamine, the prosecution and defense said during trial. The shooting was the culmination of "bad history" between Gastelum-Medina and Sharif, according to the prosecution. Gastelum-Medina believed Sharif owed him money from an earlier drug deal rip-off and he suspected Sharif was trying to woo Gastelum-Medina's girlfriend away from him.

Gastelum-Medina's mother was among a handful of his supporters in the courtroom. Sharif's family members weren't in the courtroom, but prosecutor Bracken McKey said they wanted the judge to know that they were grateful for the jury's guilty verdict.

Jurors found Gastelum-Medina guilty of murder and unlawful use of a weapon on Sept. 26. Washington County Circuit Judge Oscar Garcia found him guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm in a separate bench trial related to the shooting. Garcia ordered Roger Gastelum-Medina to receive credit for the 16 months he's already spent in jail custody in the killing of 21-year-old Yusuf Sharif of Beaverton and ordered Gastelum, a native of Mexico, to not return to the U.S. if he is deported....

Additional charges of second-degree sexual abuse and third-degree rape involving the same girl were dropped as part of a plea agreement.

McKey said the plea deal was reached because of the murder conviction presented an almost certainty that Gastelum-Medina would serve at least two decades in prison...

Gastelum-Medina has been in the U.S. illegally, McKey said Thursday, and has a criminal history that includes a 2015 conviction for methamphetamine possession.

He was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in November 2015 and taken to the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center, McKey said. He was released in February 2016 on electronic monitoring.

According to a search warrant affidavit, Gastelum-Medina was required to pay for the GPS monitoring, but stopped in June 2016 and the service was shut off.

McKey said Gastelum-Medina continued to wear the ankle bracelet even though it wasn't tracking him, remained in Washington County and sold meth.

The GPS monitoring ended nearly two weeks before the shooting, according to the affidavit. McKey said ICE hadn't issued a warrant for Gastelum-Medina's arrest before then.

Lindsey said Gastelum-Medina was told by an immigration attorney that deportation is "imminent and virtually certain." Gastelum-Medina has matured now that "he is no longer saturated in methamphetamine culture," Lindsey said.

The attorney said he is remorseful for the damage he has caused to Sharif's family and to his own family.