A Polk County judge on Thursday sentenced a Salem man to life in prison after a jury found him guilty of murder in a fatal shooting in September 2021.
Jonathan Alexis Gonzales-Salcido, 25, will serve at least 25 years in prison before he can petition the state’s parole board to be considered for release, according to Polk County District Attorney Aaron Felton.
Polk County Circuit Court Judge Norman Hill also sentenced Gonzales-Salcido to a lifetime of post-prison supervision if he is released.
The sentencing comes a day after a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder, unlawful use of a weapon and recklessly endangering another person in Polk County Circuit Court, according to court records.
The charges allege he shot and killed 31-year-old Ryan Ray Muniz of Keizer.
Gonzales-Salcido was acquitted on another charge of recklessly endangering another person, court records showed.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office responded around 11:34 a.m. on Sept. 14, 2021, to a report that a tree had fallen on a man on Northwest Belvedere Street in west Salem, and that the man was screaming and blood was “coming out of the male’s back,” a probable cause affidavit said.
The caller told emergency dispatchers that the man had been shot in the abdomen and was on the ground when injured.
The sheriff’s office received an additional call from a woman who said she had heard a shot then screaming.
A few minutes later, the woman said she saw a man run through a field toward Northwest Hidden Valley Drive to a wooded area, grab a red sweatshirt and put it on. She told dispatchers that he was possibly the suspect.
The report said the victim, Muniz, was confirmed dead around 14 minutes after the initial report. Polk County deputy Martin Watson detained Gonzales-Salcido around nine minutes later.
Watson reported he saw Gonzales-Salcido with a hoodie pulled down tight over his head and a gaiter face mask pulled high on his face, pushing a mower in a front lawn and and then up the sidewalk.
The deputy asked Gonzales-Salcido where he was going, to which he replied he was going to mow lawns in the area.
Watson reported Gonzales-Salcido appeared to be on a stimulant and asked numerous times not to be shot.
While transporting him to the Polk County Jail, the deputy said Gonzales-Salcido “offered him $5,000, numerous times, to let him go,” according to the affidavit.
Detectives learned Gonzales-Salcido and Muniz were part of a tree trimming service working on Belvedere Street with two other people at the time.
The two workers told detectives they were cutting a tree and as it fell, they heard three pops and saw that Gonzales-Salcido was gone. One worker said he saw Muniz immediately hold his chest and saw that he was bleeding, adding that he saw Gonzales-Salcido running between two houses.
The owner of the tree trimming service told the deputy that out of the blue, Gonzales-Salcido had asked him to drive his personal car to the worksite so he could leave from the job, which the owner declined. The owner said that Gonzales-Salcido “sulked for a minute and left,” the affidavit said.
A captain with the sheriff’s office later found a 9mm handgun along the path Gonzales-Salcido would have taken when he fled the scene.
The affidavit noted that Gonzales-Salcido had been previously convicted of vehicle theft and evading a peace officer in California in 2016 and was sentenced to 16 months in prison.
In a separate criminal case, Marion County prosecutors on Oct. 8, 2021, charged him with possessing a firearm as a felon on Sept. 9, 2021, five days before the shooting. Court records show no hearings scheduled in that case.
Felton said five members of Muniz’s family spoke at the sentencing hearing Thursday. Gonzales-Salcido made no statement.
At no point were prosecutors able to establish Gonzales-Salcido’s motive for the shooting, according to Felton.
Felton said that wasn’t needed to prove Gonzales-Salcido murdered Muniz, and that his actions in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, including immediately fleeing the scene, indicate he was guilty.
DNA associated with Gonzales-Salcido was also found on the gun, according to Felton.
He said it’s rare that his office doesn’t establish a motive in a murder case.
“That’s why it was a tough case, and I knew that that was a risk of going to trial,” he said. “Obviously there was some settlement negotiations going on for something less than the murder, but at the end of the day, it was not justice for the family.”
Correction: This story was updated to reflect that Gonzales-Salcido’s sentencing took place Thursday. Salem Reporter apologizes for the error.
Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053.
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Ardeshir Tabrizian has covered criminal justice and housing for Salem Reporter since September 2021. As an Oregon native, his award-winning watchdog journalism has traversed the state. He has done reporting for The Oregonian, Eugene Weekly and Malheur Enterprise.
