Man gets 18 to life for killing of National Guard Specialist
A mother described frantically trying to contact her son, not knowing he had been shot dead in an east valley parking lot, as a row of stoic men in dress blues wiped tears away.
In a packed courtroom, a 21-year-old man was ordered to serve 18 years to life in prison Monday for the fatal shooting of Nevada Army National Guard Spc. Dylan Salazar during an attempted carjacking.
Denise Alexander told a judge how she sent repeated text messages and called her son on May 6, 2014. She couldn‘t figure out why he wasn‘t responding.
"He promised me that nothing was ever going to happen to him and for me to stop worrying so much," she said. "I just wish I could have been there for him, to save him, to tell him how much I love him. Or better yet, to take the bullet for him... Never in a million years did I ever think that the unimaginable events had transpired earlier that morning.
"My heart has been ripped apart in a million pieces and it will never be whole again."
Salazar, 23, had been killed while sitting in his pickup truck, still wearing his seatbelt, at the Sportsman Royal Manor Apartments in the 5600 block of South Boulder Highway.
Julio Renteria, the gunman, pleaded guilty in May to second-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon.
In handing down his sentence, District Judge Carolyn Ellsworth noted that Renteria, convicted of a felony at 17, was not supposed to be carrying a firearm.
"All these things were put in motion because you made choices," she said, "and because you did not really have any regard for other people."
Adrian McClintock, 22, pleaded guilty last year for his role in the shooting.
Dozens of Salazar‘s friends and family, along with friends and family of Renteria, attended the more than hour-long sentencing hearing.
Salazar, of Las Vegas, was a ’traditional’ Guard soldier who drilled one weekend per month and performed several weeks of annual training. He was not on Guard duty at the time of the deadly shooting, Sgt. 1st Class Erick Studenicka, a spokesman for the Army National Guard in Carson City, said at the time.
Salazar enlisted in 2010 and was a heavy horizontal construction engineer in the 277th Engineer Haul Platoon, which drills in North Las Vegas. His Army records list no overseas deployments although he was awarded an Army Reserve overseas training ribbon.
His other awards include the Army Achievement medal; National Defense Service medal; Army Reserve Component Achievement medal; and the Nevada Guard Meritorious Service ribbon.
Lt. Colonel John Kruthaupt, who was Salazar‘s battalion commander, said some soldiers continue to struggle with the death.
In their initial investigation, police said Salazar was getting into his truck when he was approached by two other men who tried to steal his vehicle, then shot him and took off.
His cousin, Krystal Baldonado, who said she thought of Salazar more like a brother, wondered aloud about his last moments.
"Was he scared? Did he beg you not to shoot? Did he suffer?"
Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker
