A Vancouver man was sentenced Tuesday to 24 years in prison in the fatal shooting of a man who was found dead on a sidewalk in the Image neighborhood in December 2017.
Devin Schultz-Morrison, 26, pleaded guilty July 9 to second-degree murder in the death of 23-year-old Vincent R. Trevino.
Police found Trevino’s body, with multiple gunshot wounds, in the early morning of Dec. 30 while responding to a call of gunfire in the 12500 block of Northeast 28th Street. Multiple .45-caliber shell casings were recovered from the scene, court records say.
Trevino was later identified as one of four suspects in the beating and robbery of a 63-year-old man that took place hours before Trevino was found dead. His body was found about 2½ miles from the elderly man’s house, according to court records.
Judge Gregory Gonzales granted the prosecution’s request for a 288-month sentence.
Schultz-Morrison’s attorney had asked Gonzales for an 18-year sentence, citing a mental health evaluation of Schultz-Morrison that found he was functioning at a teenage level and a claim of self-defense, according to court records.
Schultz-Morrison was already in custody at the Clark County Jail on unrelated charges when officers arrested him in July 2018 in the homicide case.
Senior Deputy Prosecutor James Smith said Schultz-Morrison was arrested in April 2018 in an unlawful firearm possession case and posted bail. He eventually stopped checking in with supervised release, and fled when contacted by officers. He was later located in North Dakota and was brought back by a bail bondsman, Smith said.
According to an affidavit of probable cause, witnesses reported seeing someone running from the area of the shooting. Minutes before police were dispatched, one witness saw a tan- or brown-colored, older Toyota Camry speeding south on 126th Avenue without its lights on. There were three or four people inside. Detectives later learned Schultz-Morrison owned a 1997 Toyota Camry.
Surveillance video obtained from a nearby Chevron shows a vehicle dropping off Trevino at about 2:30 a.m. Nearly an hour later, the Toyota Camry pulls into the lot, and someone leaves the car and walks off toward Northeast 28th Street. Phone records indicate that Schultz-Morrison’s cellphone was in the area at the time, the affidavit states.
According to court records, Schultz-Morrison told his brother that Trevino told Schultz-Morrison about beating the 63-year-old man with a metal pipe. He then told his brother he shot Trevino, according to a police interview. He also told his brother he was high on LSD at the time.
Following an anonymous tip in March 2018 that Schultz-Morrison was the shooter, and a domestic disturbance call days later, officers recovered a Ruger .45-caliber handgun from his residence. The ammunition in the firearm matched the shell casings found at the shooting scene and retrieved from Trevino’s body, the affidavit states.
