{"id":5767,"date":"2011-04-06T20:07:20","date_gmt":"2011-04-07T03:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=5767"},"modified":"2011-04-07T05:29:03","modified_gmt":"2011-04-07T12:29:03","slug":"accused-slayer-of-rochester-man-in-1986-faces-a-judge-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=5767","title":{"rendered":"Accused slayer of Rochester man in 1986 faces a judge today"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"2-11.0406.guiterrez.court_2\"<\/a>

Carlos Vidal Guiterrez, right, stands with defense attorney Bob Schroeter in a Chehalis courtroom this afternoon.<\/p><\/div>\n

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker
\nLewis County Sirens news reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n

CHEHALIS – The three shots that fatally wounded 23-year-old Efren J. Triana outside a Centralia tavern were fired into his back, prosecutors alleged when they charged Carlos Vidal Guiterrez almost a quarter of a century ago.<\/p>\n

Today, Guiterrez faced a judge in Lewis County Superior Court in Chehalis and a charge of second-degree murder.<\/p>\n

Guiterrez, 54, was brought to Lewis County yesterday following his arrest by U.S. marshals two weeks ago in San Benito County in central California.<\/p>\n

\"2011.0406.guiterrez.small_2\"<\/a>

Carlos Vidal Guiterrez<\/p><\/div>\n

Centralia police had been tracking him off and on since 1986 and a “cold case” detective recently located him, according to the Centralia Police Department.<\/p>\n

Defense attorney Bob Schroeter, using a Spanish interpreter, told the judge Guiterrez has no assets and no income to hire a lawyer.<\/p>\n

Judge Nelson Hunt appointed Centralia defense attorney David Arcuri to represent Guiterrez.<\/p>\n

Hunt scheduled Guiterrez to return to court tomorrow afternoon, so bail can be set by another judge.<\/p>\n

“I am recused from the case, as I was chief criminal deputy prosecutor when the case was charged,” Hunt said.<\/p>\n

Then-elected Lewis County Prosecutor James Miller filed the charge in 1986.<\/p>\n

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead – one of three lawyers newly-elected Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer hired after he started in January – is handling the case today.<\/p>\n

“The real part now is just finding some of the folks,” Halstead said after the brief hearing.<\/p>\n

It was almost 25 years ago, at about 1 o’clock in the morning when Centralia police were called to a tavern called La Adalitas, at the 100 block of West Main Street, according to Centralia Officer John Panco. Triana, a Rochester resident, had been shot. It was Oct. 25, 1986.<\/p>\n

Charging documents filed four days later describe how the suspect had attempted to pick a fight with other bar patrons. Nobody took him up on it until Triana said, ” … if he wished to fight, he, the victim, would fight with him outside the tavern,” charging documents state.<\/p>\n

The documents go on to give the following account:<\/p>\n

Once outside, the victim put his hands up as though to fight and a gunshot was heard. The victim grabbed his head, then turned away from the defendant.<\/p>\n

The defendant fired three more rounds, after which the victim ran several feet and collapsed. The defendant ran from the area.<\/p>\n

Police and Centralia Fire Department aid persons found Triana seriously wounded. Triana was taken to Centralia General Hospital where he was pronounced dead.<\/p>\n

An autopsy the following day determined Triana suffered a grazing wound to his head from a bullet and three fatal shots to his body.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old was believed to have been unarmed.<\/p>\n

Police discovered their suspect got a ride to the Yakima area, but didn’t find him there. He had worked often in Eastern Washington as a laborer.<\/p>\n

On of the primary investigators was Sgt. Robert Berg, now the chief of police.<\/p>\n

Police developed information their suspect would be leaving the state and trying to return to Mexico. He was a Mexican citizen, and as far as investigators could determine, not legally in the United States.<\/p>\n

Charging documents say the suspect used several aliases. Those listed are: Roberto Vidal Guiterrez, Roberto Sepi Guiterrez, Carlos Kiros, Sepi Guiterrez and Carlos Guiterrez Moreno.<\/p>\n

There is currently a hold on Guiterrez by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
\n\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

Read “Breaking news: Suspect arrested in 1986 Centralia cold case murder” from Wednesday March 23, 2011, here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker Lewis County Sirens news reporter CHEHALIS – The three shots that fatally wounded 23-year-old Efren J. Triana outside a Centralia tavern were fired into his back, prosecutors alleged when they charged Carlos Vidal Guiterrez almost a quarter of a century ago. Today, Guiterrez faced a judge in Lewis County Superior Court […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10],"class_list":["post-5767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-story","tag-by-sharyn-l-decker","tag-news-reporter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5767"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5773,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5767\/revisions\/5773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}