Eulalio Gonzalez-Sanchez, a 36-year-old Hispanic male, had just stepped off a bus in Northeast Minneapolis in the early morning hours of September 21, 2014. He was on his way home after visiting his girlfriend and sent a text to friends to let them know he was close. Just a minute after that message was sent, the sound of multiple gunshots echoed through the neighborhood. Gonzalez-Sanchez was found shortly after in a parking lot on Seventh Street near 22nd Avenue, having been shot and killed.
Those who knew him in the community described him as a well-liked man who held down two jobs.
The investigation into the seemingly random act of violence initially had few leads, with no witnesses to the shooting itself. The key piece of evidence became the shell casings recovered from the scene. A significant break in the case came weeks later during a traffic stop on October 2nd. An officer seized a Ruger. 40 caliber handgun from a passenger in the vehicle, 20-year-old Jeremiah Elijah Blackwell. Ballistic testing confirmed that it was the same weapon used to murder Eulalio Gonzalez-Sanchez. Further investigation of cell phone records placed Blackwell's phone within a couple hundred yards of the murder scene around the time of the shooting.
In December of that year, Jeremiah Elijah Blackwell was charged with second-degree murder in connection with Gonzalez-Sanchez's death, which authorities believed was the result of a robbery gone wrong. The investigation continued, and in March 2015, a second suspect, Montrell Maurice Webster, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, was charged with first-degree murder. According to a criminal complaint, Webster confessed to detectives that he was the one who shot Gonzalez-Sanchez multiple times after ordering him to the ground and taking his wallet. Security footage from a Walmart also showed Blackwell, Webster, and two of Blackwell's family members purchasing ammunition for the murder weapon.
Ultimately, a jury found Montrell Webster guilty of first-degree murder, a conviction that came after less than three hours of deliberation. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years. Jeremiah Elijah Blackwell pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of aiding an offender. During Webster's sentencing, victim impact statements from Gonzalez-Sanchez's girlfriend and sister were read, expressing the profound devastation his murder had brought to their lives.
