EPHRATA, Wash. (AP) — A man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison in connection with the brutal fatal shooting of a woman in central Washington.
The Columbia Basin Herald reports Julio Ceasar Albarran Varona was sentenced Monday in Grant County Superior Court after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in connection with the December 2016 killing of 31-year-old Jill Sundberg.
As part of a plea deal, he will be required to testify against co-defendants in the Sundberg case as well as defendants in another case.
Police say Albarran Varona kicked Sundberg, forcing her to the ground before Gustavo Tapia Rodriguez shot Sundberg over a dozen times. Police say she argued with them before she was kidnapped and driven to the Frenchman Coulee area near George, where she was killed.
Tapia Rodriguez has pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges.