In the quiet evening of October 29, 2022, in Kennewick, Washington, the life of 19-year-old Hispanic male Julian Chavez was abruptly cut short. Julian was an aspiring barber, an artistic young man known for his constant smile, who was saving money to attend barber school. Family members described him as a good kid who was not involved in gangs. He was just a few days shy of celebrating his 20th birthday.
On that fateful night, he drove his car to the 1100 block of West 5th Avenue, believing he was meeting someone to sell vape pens.
Responding to reports of gunfire around 9:15 p.m., police arrived to find a car that had crashed into a parked vehicle. Inside, slumped in the driver's seat, was Julian Chavez, deceased from gunshot wounds. The investigation into his death, the 15th homicide in Benton County that year, quickly revealed a tragic story of a robbery gone fatally wrong. Investigators discovered that Julian had been messaging with his eventual killer on Instagram to arrange the sale of vape cartridges. The plan, however, was not a simple transaction but a setup for a robbery orchestrated by two teenagers.
The investigation moved swiftly. Detectives found that Julian had been shot three times from the backseat of his own car. Muzzle flashes were seen on video surveillance inside the car just before it crashed, after which a figure was seen fleeing from the rear of the vehicle. On November 2, 2022, Kennewick police arrested a 14-year-old suspect at a home on the same block where the shooting occurred. A second teenage suspect was apprehended later. The two were identified as 14-year-olds Hector Pantoja and Victor Ariel Cervantes.
The legal process determined that Hector Pantoja, the alleged shooter, would be tried as an adult. Evidence against him included his DNA found inside the car and a. 45 caliber handgun discovered at a home he was staying at, which matched the shell casings from the scene. At the age of 16, Pantoja pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, admitting he had planned to rob Chavez and fired the fatal shots over what amounted to about $100 worth of vape pens, marijuana, and rolling papers. While Julian's family expressed that no sentence would feel like true justice for the loss of a kind young man with dreams for the future, Pantoja was sentenced for his crime.
