Man fatally shoots 58-year-old while hunting for someone else, OR officials say
A 31-year-old man accused of gunning down another man while searching for someone else and then later shooting at police officers will spend at least three decades behind bars, prosecutors said.
Jessie Garza III was ordered to serve 32 years to life in prison after pleading guilty to multiple charges, including second-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office said in an April 4 news release.
McClatchy News reached out to his attorneys April 7 and was awaiting a response.
Garza is accused of barging into a Portland apartment in December 2023 looking for someone named “Moro,” prosecutors said, citing witness reports.
Inside, he confronted Richard Newman, 58, described “as a father figure to ‘Moro,’” prosecutors said. Garza demanded “to know where Moro was,” and then shot Newman several times after Newman told him to leave, according to prosecutors.
Newman was rushed to a hospital, where he died.
Garza ran off and was arrested about two weeks later after a stand-off, according to prosecutors and the Portland Police Bureau. Police officers reported that Garza fired at them, prosecutors said.
“A friend who had tried to help de-escalate the situation told a detective (that) Garza had told her he was aware that he was wanted for murder, that he might have done something bad, that he was not going to jail, and that he was going to make the police kill him,” prosecutors said.
He ultimately surrendered, police said in a news release at the time.
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