Medford, Ore. — A year after a drive-by shooting in West Medford, Geno King, 20, pleaded guilty on Friday to attempted murder and weapons charges. King was sentenced to eight years in prison, and three years post-prison supervision.
“I want to apologize to the victim and their family for causing, the harm I’ve caused,” King said in court. “I am young, and I do make mistakes, and I did make a mistake.”
King admitted to shooting at a group of people standing on the 400 block of South Columbus avenue on July 30th of last year, hitting one woman in the leg, before fleeing. In exchange, the Jackson County District Attorney’s Office made a plea deal with King, who has gang ties.
“Last summer, there was quite a bit of gang activity, I’m sure everybody recalls, there were several drive-by shootings,” Jeremy Markiewicz said, Chief Deputy District Attorney.
After the incident, police located King in Dayton, Ohio four months later.
“They knew he had ties to Portland, to California, and we had heard there was some ties to Ohio,” Markiewicz said. “We reached out to some federal agencies in helping to locate him, and I believe on November 23 is when the Ohio Fugitive Task Force took him into custody in Dayton.”
Now back in Oregon, King will spend the next eight years behind bars.
“I’ll serve, serve my sentence, and my debt to the community, and when I come home, I will do better,” King said.
The co-defendant in this case, and the driver of the car, Jared Carvalho has also entered a guilty plea to first degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon charges. His sentencing is scheduled for August 28th.
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