(Caleb Wolf/Special to Salem Reporter)
A Marion County judge on Friday sentenced a man to 20 years in state prison after a jury found him guilty of manslaughter for fatally shooting two people in Salem in May 2019.
Judge Daniel Wren also sentenced Curtis Welch to six years of post-prison supervision and ordered him to pay about $9,000 in restitution, court records showed.
Welch, 30, was indicted in May 2019 on two counts of first-degree murder and first-degree attempted murder in Marion County Circuit Court.
A jury on Feb. 22 found Welch guilty of two counts of a lesser charge, first-degree manslaughter, in the deaths of Bradley Kelley and Michael Buntjer.
He was found not guilty of attempting to murder Coral Olfert.
The shooting occurred around 10:15 p.m. on May 6, 2019 in the 3600 block of Northeast Joshua Avenue. Kelley was found dead at the scene, while Buntjer later died from his injuries at Salem Hospital. Olfert, of Salem, was treated for injuries, according to a news release issued the day after the shooting.
Welch and his brother, 25-year-old Keonte Caldwell, 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.
The Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office the following day ruled the deaths of Kelley and Buntjer as homicides, according to the statement. Both victims were 35 and lived in Salem.
A Marion County grand jury also indicted Caldwell May 10, 2019 on two counts of first-degree murder and first-degree attempted murder.
His brother’s trial is scheduled to begin July 19.
-Ardeshir Tabrizian
