By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Police aren’t looking any longer for Andrew Morales-Loberg, a 19-year-old wanted but never captured in connection with a Chehalis drive-by shooting two years ago.
The Chehalis resident is one of four gang members sentenced Monday to more than 100 years in prison for a quasi-drive-by shooting in Yakima County, according to authorities.
[1]Andrew Morales-Loberg
Jaime Lopez, now 20, is the name Andrew Morales-Loberg gave police when he was arrested, Yakima County Deputy Prosecutor Gary Hintze said yesterday.
He and three other men – all LVL members, according to Hintze – were convicted in what was described as a retaliatory shooting after the sister of one of their group was shot in Sunnyside early last year.
A few hours later, gunfire erupted outside a Norteno-related home in the nearby town of Outlook, Hintze said.
“They rolled up, stopped the car, got out and lined up outside and shot up the trailer, narrowly missing seven people sleeping,” Hintze said.
That was March 14, 2011 and the suspects were jailed shortly after, he said.
Morales-Loberg had been implicated in the summer of 2010 in a Chehalis incident in which someone in a red Chevrolet Blazer fired a round from a pistol that missed several people but struck a parked vehicle on Southwest William Street.
At first police said an unknown number of individuals were inside the Blazer, but soon filed charges against four local residents, claiming they were all in the SUV, including Morales-Loberg.
He was never apprehended.
Authorities here described the suspects as LVL members and the shooting as related to a debt owed to somebody called “Candy man”.
Witnesses implicated two different men as the shooter.
The alleged target Rolando Carrillo Cruz told a police detective he was certain it was Morales-Loberg; and Christina Palomares – at one point believed to be the driver – pointed to her husband as the shooter, according to court documents.
Drive-by shooting charges were subsequently dismissed against all three.
Palomares [2], a 24-year-old Tenino woman, pleaded guilty last summer to two counts of malicious prosecution. The deputy prosecutor said she lied about who was in the vehicle, and there was some question if she was even there.
Juan Valentino Vasquez [3] was released three months earlier, because of insufficient evidence.
Charges against Ruben Alberto Palomares [4] were dropped six months before that.
A $500,000 bench warrant remains for Morales-Loberg in the Chehalis case.
Chehalis police said they learned their wanted subject was locked up in Yakima and aren’t sure if he’ll be brought back to Lewis County.
Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher said today he hasn’t decided if he’ll pursue it, given Morales-Loberg’s lengthy Yakima County sentence.
“He got life, that’s good news,” Meagher said.
Hintze said he doesn’t know a whole lot about Morales-Loberg, although he said he also goes by the street name “Loki”.
The Yakima Herald-Republic [5] quotes the father of Morales-Loberg, also known as Jaime Morales, as telling the judge on Monday that God would judge his son and the others fairly.
He was given 160 year sentence for his role in the Outlook shooting. With three guns and seven victims, the first-degree assault charges, plus mandatory firearm enhancement time added up, according to Hintze.