A man died in an ambush on Tacoma’s Eastside. Jury delivers verdict for final defendant

A 26-year-old man accused of killing a Tacoma man in a gang shooting that ambushed an SUV occupied by four other people, including two toddlers, has been found guilty of first-degree murder, four counts of assault and other felonies.

A jury rendered the verdict Tuesday for Adrian Sanchez-Radilla, one of four men charged in the May 7, 2022 shooting on the city’s Eastside. Martin Solorzano Cruz, 25, Bismar Andres, 30, and Johnathan Lucht, 26, already pleaded guilty to murder. All but Lucht now await sentencing — a judge gave him 32 years in prison Wednesday morning.

Sanchez-Radilla and Lucht, according to Pierce County prosecutors, fired at least 22 shots at the SUV in 10 seconds after blocking the middle of a street with their vehicle, striking Samuel Antonio Garza Gonzalez in the neck and lodging at least eight more bullets in the SUV.

During closing arguments June 26, deputy prosecuting attorney Dru Swaim told the jury of six men and six women that the shooting occurred because Garza Gonzalez was wearing the wrong colors in the wrong neighborhood.

Garza Gonzalez, 24, was wearing a red baseball cap when he was shot, according to court records, and when the defendants’ vehicle was recovered by law enforcement, investigators found a blue bandanna wrapped around its steering column.

Swaim also argued that the shooting was about disrespect, and that the SUV was fired upon because the group followed Sanchez-Radilla and the other defendants, gang members who she said were trying to claim contested territory.

Jurors left blank special verdict forms that asked them to decide whether Sanchez-Radilla carried out the murder and assaults to obtain, maintain or advance his position in an organization such as a gang, and if he did it to benefit the gang.

Sanchez-Radilla also was found guilty of drive-by shooting, second-degree murder for Garza Gonzalez’s death and first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.

Sentencing was set for Aug. 16. According to the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, he will have to serve sentences on his murder and assault convictions consecutively, rather than at the same time. The low end of his standard sentencing range is about 65 years in prison, but the length of his punishment will be up to the judge to decide.

Garza Gonzalez’s mother, Elisa Gonzalez, told The News Tribune that Sanchez-Radilla’s guilty verdict means she got justice for her son.

The mother said she and her husband moved to Tacoma in the mid-2000s from Merced, California, to escape gang violence and give their kids a better life. Now, she said, she’s sick and tired of hearing news of local murders and shootings that happen for no good reason.

“I think there’s just been an abundance of shootings like never before,” she said.

Gonzalez, 45, said she attended every day of the trial, often going with a small group of friends. Jurors deliberated for three days before reaching a verdict, and Gonzalez said she started to feel nervous about the outcome. She said she cried when the guilty verdicts finally came down late Tuesday afternoon.

Prosecutors said the victim was trying to visit a relative on the Eastside the evening of the shooting, traveling with his wife, Nancy, who was driving, and his cousin, Gerrono Sandoval, who was in the backseat with his two children, then ages 2 and 3.

After finding that the relative wasn’t home and checking out a scenic viewpoint, the group ended up following a white pickup truck occupied by the defendants for three to four minutes at about 11:10 p.m.

Following the vehicle proved fatal. They were in contested gang territory in the area of 34th Street and McKinley Avenue. At least six different gangs had claimed it, according to the state’s gang expert, Tacoma Police Department Sgt. Ryan Bradley. He testified that it’s considered unacceptable to do nothing about being followed in your own territory.

At 401 E. 35th St., Andres stopped the pickup and blocked the street until the victims’ vehicle came to a stop some distance behind it a minute later. Then, Sanchez-Radilla and Lucht got out of the passenger’s side of the pickup and opened fire.

Sanchez-Radilla’s defense attorney, John Meske, told jurors in closings that the shooting wasn’t related to gang activity. Instead, he argued, it was an inappropriate response to a perceived threat. He said the state’s theory that this was a gang shooting was a “misdirection.”

Meske also contested DNA evidence and fingerprints that placed Sanchez-Radilla in the pickup, which was recovered by law enforcement when Andres was arrested in a high-speed pursuit.

Inside the truck, investigators found a can of Red Bull and a bottle of Mountain Dew that prosecutors said were purchased on the day of the shooting and contained Sanchez-Radilla’s DNA. Fingerprints that prosecutors said belonged to Sanchez-Radilla and Lucht were also found near a passenger’s side door.

Sanchez-Radilla has an additional first-degree assault charge pending against him in a separate case. According to court records, he’s accused of spray-painting a man’s residence with a gang tag south of Tacoma on Sept. 2, 2022, and then shooting a man who lived there in the leg when he was confronted. Records show the case went to trial June 4 and is ongoing.

In the two years since the death of her son, Gonzalez started a car club in his honor called Unidas Por Vida, Spanish for “United for Life.” Her son had a passion for automobiles, and she said he left behind five old-school cars.

His prized ride was an Oldsmobile Delta 88, and he was working on restoring a 1975 Monte Carlo before he was killed. It’s a task that Garza Gonzalez’s mother has since taken on with one of her nephews. She said she plans to have it repainted from blue to silver, to fit a Las Vegas Raiders theme, an NFL team her son was a fan of.

Unidas Por Vida recently had its second-annual event. Gonzalez said the group raised $5,000 to help families who have been affected by gun violence or vehicular homicide. The club plans to help by providing families with a hot meal, a Costco run for groceries or just by being there to talk.

The club’s mission statement is “cruising for a cause,” something Gonzalez said was born out of the frustration she felt when authorities told her that her son had no business being out driving with children in the car when they were shot at. Gonzalez said her family comes from a Hispanic community and a culture that likes to go for drives on otherwise boring evenings, checking out scenic spots and enjoying views of Tacoma.

“It still shouldn’t mean you should get shot,” Gonzalez said.

Her son’s death is just one of several tragedies that have befallen Gonzalez’s and her husband’s families. She said her husband, Samuel Garza, became severely ill at the end of 2021, having suffered anaphylaxis after getting a booster shot for COVID-19, an allergic reaction that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been reported but is rare .

The anaphylactic reaction put Gonzalez’s husband in a coma, and she said he is now completely dependent and nonverbal because his brain was deprived of oxygen for 25 minutes. Garza was discharged from a hospital in March 2022, and the shooting that killed their son happened two months later.

In January, Gonzalez’s nephew, Sandoval, who was in the SUV when the shooting occurred, died by suicide. Gonzalez said she saw the man struggling with his mental health, and she was frustrated that the state didn’t do more to help him as a victim of a crime.

“My life has changed for the rest of my life with the illness of my husband and the murder of my son in a 4-month period,” Gonzalez said. “Give me a break, somebody give me a break. But I can’t get a break.”

Gonzalez also spoke in court Wednesday at the sentencing hearing for Lucht, the other man identified as a shooter in the drive-by. She said the prison time he received wasn’t long enough. She would have liked to have seen a sentence closer to what Sanchez-Radilla is expected to get.

Lucht declined to make a statement before he was sentenced, according to court records. Gonzalez said she’d hoped the defendant would have said something to show he cared about what happened. But he didn’t.

“He’s a coward,” Gonzalez said.