He killed his friend’s boyfriend in Tacoma in 2006. Now he’s been sentenced
Jesus Richard Mederos benefited from the 12 years he spent on the run after fatally shooting a man in Tacoma.
In addition to his freedom, Mederos benefited because evidence that might have been used against him is no longer available, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Bryan Chushcoff told the 33-year-old Thursday.
Chushcoff then sentenced Mederos to 19 years, three months in prison for the 2006 death of 18-year-old Robert Tapia.
That was several years longer than what the defense and prosecution recommended after Mederos pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and unlawful gun possession.
Before the sentence was handed down, Joe Ballard told the court he’d been friends with Tapia since childhood when they met while riding bikes. Ballard said Tapia was the first in his family to graduate high school, which inspired Ballard to do the same.
“Who would want to hurt Fat Rob?” he remembered thinking when he heard of the shooting. “He got along with everybody.”
Ballard told Mederos that his actions had caused damage and suffering to many people.
“You destroyed a lot of stuff by one action that you took over a woman,” Ballard said.
Deputy prosecutor Greg Greer and defense attorney Ed Decosta also told the court the shooting had to do with a woman, who was dating Tapia and was Mederos’ close friend.
Mederos’ plea statement reads: “I learned my friend Robert Tapia was looking for me to settle a score wrongly believing I had inappropriate relations with his girlfriend. I armed myself with a pistol and went to confront him; when I found Robert, I intended to scare him off and pointed the pistol at him and fired.”
Charging papers say Tapia and his girlfriend were driving near East 36th and K streets Oct. 20, 2006 when Mederos ran up to the car and shot Tapia through the open passenger window.
Decosta said Tapia and Mederos had been friends and had played Xbox video games the day of the shooting.
“Jesus never intended to kill Robert,” Decosta said.
Mederos then was given a chance to speak.
“I’m truly sorry for taking his life,” he told the judge.
Mederos said he fled to Mexico after the shooting because he feared retaliation. In Mexico, he married a woman, and the couple had two children.
Chushcoff pointed out that Mederos wouldn’t have had to worry about retaliation if he’d been in police custody.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation eventually found Mederos, who was arrested in May 2017 in Cuernavaca, Mexico. He then was extradited to Pierce County.
Chushcoff told Mederos that the violence he sees between young men is unbelievable and frustrating. Often it’s petty, about egos or saving face, he said.
Parents, the judge told Mederos, try to keep their kids out of serious trouble.
“We just hold on ... until he just grows up and matures out of this,” Chushcoff said.
But it doesn’t always work out that way, the judge lamented.
This story was originally published February 15, 2019 at 9:57 AM.
