On a cold and foggy morning in late autumn, the life of 35-year-old Renee Luiz-Antonio of Milton-Freewater, Oregon, was tragically cut short. On November 26, 2018, Luiz-Antonio was working at the Umapine Creamery, a dairy west of Umapine, when he was shot and killed while operating a tractor. The Umatilla County Sheriff's Office received a report of the incident at approximately 6:30 a.m.
and responded to the scene, where they found Luiz-Antonio deceased.
The investigation into the homicide quickly focused on a coworker, Antonio Vasquez-Vargas, also known as Deciderio Vargas-Ortiz, with whom Luiz-Antonio had an ongoing dispute. The owner of the creamery stated that the conflict between the two employees had culminated in the fatal shooting, which was reportedly captured on security cameras. Evidence at the scene indicated that Luiz-Antonio had been shot while on the tractor. The Umatilla County Sheriff's Office, with assistance from the Oregon State Police crime lab and other local law enforcement agencies, launched a thorough investigation.
The suspect, 52-year-old Antonio Vasquez-Vargas of Walla Walla, was located and arrested the following day at the Clover Island Inn in Kennewick, Washington, by a SWAT team. Vasquez-Vargas, a citizen of Mexico who had been deported on at least eight prior occasions, did not fight extradition and was returned to Umatilla County. He was subsequently charged with murder and felon in possession of a firearm. This was not Vasquez-Vargas's first deadly encounter with the law; he had a previous conviction for vehicular homicide in 1999.
In May 2021, the case concluded when Antonio Vasquez-Vargas pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of first-degree manslaughter. As a result of a plea agreement, the murder charge was dismissed. He was sentenced to 20 years in state prison for manslaughter, with an additional two and a half years for being a convicted felon in possession of a weapon. The resolution of the case brought a close to a lengthy legal process that included mental health evaluations for the defendant.
