Torres given 20 years for 2018 killing of his father

MOSES LAKE — Jonathan Torres, 22, of Royal City, was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday after pleading guilty to shooting his father in the back of the head in 2018.

Torres pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter, first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm and first-degree attempted unlawful possession of a firearm.

Torres had originally been charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, attempted first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, resisting arrest and attempted disarming of a law enforcement officer. He was offered a plea agreement with lesser charges after medical experts found he suffered from methamphetamine-induced psychosis at the time of the shooting.

In November 2018, Torres’ mother, who was not named in court documents, told investigators that she and her husband, Jesus Torres Flores, 58, had driven Jonathan to a hospital in Othello due to him feeling sick and “like he was going to die.” They arrived at the hospital in Othello at approximately 10 p.m. and departed about an hour and a half later, according to the police report.

Torres’ mother said that after they left the hospital she started to drive back to Royal City, with Jonathan seated in the back of the vehicle directly behind her and with her husband in the front passenger seat. As they were driving home, Torres Flores was reportedly “talking about Christ” when a gunshot was fired.

“After hearing the gunshot, (the mother) saw that Jesus Torres Flores had been shot in the head and he appeared dead,” wrote a detective. “According to (the woman), the windows of the vehicle were closed at the time the shot was fired and she was certain that the shot came from inside the vehicle. (She) was sure that Jonathan Torres was the one to fire the gunshot because he was the only other person in the vehicle.”

The mother drove to their home in Royal City on Juniper Circle, where Torres’ sister phoned 911. Deputies located Torres in a parking lot in Royal City, and they had to use a stun gun on him after he grabbed a rifle that was slung around a deputy’s body.

Torres and his brother Jesus had been previously charged in connection with a July 2017 shooting in Moses Lake that left a woman with a gunshot wound to the head. The pair were found not guilty at the time by Superior Court Judge John Antosz. At the time, Antosz stated that he believed there was insufficient evidence to convict the brothers.