A Yakima woman accused of killing her boyfriend will not be prosecuted at this time.
Yakima County prosecutors dropped a second-degree murder charge against Martha Silvia Ibarra-Gutiérrez. In a Nov. 4 order to the court, prosecutors asked that the charge be dismissed without prejudice because they would not be able to disprove Ibarra-Gutiérrez’s self-defense argument beyond a reasonable doubt.
“We need evidence to be able to prosecute and to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it was a homicide, a murder,” Yakima County Prosecuting Attorney Joe Brusic said in a Nov. 5 interview, “but also that there was an absence of self-defense.”
Ibarra-Gutiérrez, 33, was charged in the shooting death of Francisco Velázquez-Palma, 37, at their home in the 2900 block of Richey Road Oct. 20.
In a probable cause affidavit filed by Yakima police detectives, Ibarra-Gutiérrez’s 11-year-old daughter said she heard her mother and Velázquez-Palma arguing over text messages and cheating before hearing two shots. She then found her mother standing over Velázquez-Palma while holding a handgun.
A 911 caller who lived across the street Ibarra-Gutiérrez and Velázquez-Palma in the 2900 block of Richey Road told detectives around 1:27 a.m. that Ibarra-Gutiérrez came over and said she had shot “her husband,” the affidavit said. Officers arrested Ibarra-Gutiérrez there, seizing a .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol.
Officers went to the house where they found Velázquez-Palma on the floor with two gunshot wounds in his torso. He was taken to MultiCare Yakima Memorial Hospital where he died from his wounds. He was 37.
Officers also found an empty handgun magazine and two cellphones in Velázquez-Palma’s pockets and a Glock handgun on the floor.
Ibarra-Gutiérrez’s daughter told detectives she didn’t see the shooting, and that her mother said she “did it for her,” the affidavit said.
Brusic said that prosecutors are legally obligated to evaluate not just what charges can be filed in a case, and what defenses the evidence can support.
“You don’t charge someone with a crime hoping that, maybe, something will stick,” Brusic said.
When a defendant argues that they acted in self-defense, the burden of proof is on the prosecutor to refute that beyond a reasonable doubt, which courts define as a doubt for which a reason exists.
And even if prosecutors believe they have an air-tight case, jurors can be swayed to acquit on self-defense grounds.
In 2020, a Yakima County Superior Court jury acquitted Cameron Helland for the 2018 killing of Davonte Mesa in a West Valley school parking lot. Jurors accepted Helland’s argument that he killed Mesa in self-defense when he tried to steal marijuana Helland was selling, even though prosecutors showed that all but one of the shots fired into Mesa hit him from behind as he was fleeing.
In 2023, a jury acquitted Jonathan Edgar Navarro in the shooting death of José Rivera De la Cruz, 23. Navarro argued that he was shooting to defend himself after a rival gang member brandished a gun in his direction in the parking lot.
One of his bullets hit De La Cruz, who prosecutors said was not a bystander and was merely waiting for a ride after shopping at the mall.
While jurors acquitted Navarro, they also found that De La Cruz’s shooting was not justified.
By dismissing the case without prejudice, prosecutors retain the ability to refile the charges if circumstances change. Brusic also pointed out that there is no statute of limitations on murder.
Source: www.yakimaherald.com
