Man sentenced to 20 years in prison for killing two in 2019 Salem shooting
A Marion County judge on Tuesday sentenced a man to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to fatally shooting two people in Salem in May 2019.
Circuit Judge Daniel Wren also sentenced Keonte Caldwell to six years of post-prison supervision, court records showed.
The shooting occurred around 10:15 p.m. on May 6, 2019 in the 3600 block of Northeast Joshua Avenue. Bradley Kelley, 35, was found dead at the scene, while Michael Buntjer, 35 later died from his injuries at Salem Hospital. Both victims lived in Salem.
Olfert, of Salem, was treated for injuries, according to a news release issued the day after the shooting.
Caldwell and his brother, 30-year-old Curtis Welch, were later arrested in the Roseburg area. Both men live in the Salem area and were “known to the victims,” the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said in the news release.
Caldwell, 26, was initially indicted in May 2019 on two counts of aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder in Marion County Circuit Court, before the Legislature narrowed the crime’s definition that same year.
A grand jury in Marion County returned an amended indictment in January 2020, charging Caldwell with two counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder.
He pleaded guilty July 1 to lesser charges — two counts of first-degree manslaughter and unlawful use of a weapon in the deaths of Kelley and Buntjer. The charges also allege he attempted to use a firearm against Coral Olfert.
A Marion County grand jury also indicted Welch in May 2019 on two counts of first-degree murder and first-degree attempted murder in Marion County Circuit Court.
Welch was found guilty Feb. 22 of two counts of a lesser charge, first-degree manslaughter, in the deaths of Kelley and Buntjer. He was found not guilty of attempting to murder Coral Olfert.
Wren sentenced him to 20 years in prison and six years of post-prison supervision, and ordered him to pay about $9,000 in restitution, court records showed.
Welch filed a notice to appeal the judgement on April 11.
-Ardeshir Tabrizian
