A grand jury in Oregon has indicted a Vancouver man on an aggravated murder charge in the Oct. 31 kidnapping and killing of his 2-year-old daughter, identified in court records as Brianna Villalobos Rodriguez.
Gustavo Enrique Villalobos Carranza, 31, was scheduled to be arraigned on the indictment Monday in Multnomah County Circuit Court, which also included charges of first- and second-degree murder, first-degree assault, first-degree criminal mischief and unlawful use of a weapon.
Aggravated murder is the only crime in Oregon that carries a potential death sentence. It applies to defendants who have killed two or more people as an act of organized terrorism; a child younger than 14 in a premeditated act; another person while in jail or prison for a previous murder; or a police, corrections or probation officer as part of a premeditated act, The Oregonian reported last week.
Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt opposes the death penalty and has previously said he won’t seek it, according to The Oregonian.
People convicted of aggravated murder in Oregon can also be sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years, or life without parole.
Online court records show Villalobos Carranza was due in court Monday after his scheduled Friday arraignment was set over because the court was “unable to find (a) qualified attorney to take this case.”
Villalobos Carranza is being held without bail in the Multnomah County Jail.
Vancouver police arrested Villalobos Carranza in the early morning of Oct. 31 after he agreed to turn himself in. He was subsequently extradited from Clark County to Multnomah County.
Vancouver police had responded around 12:50 a.m. to a report of threats. The child’s mother said that the father, identified by authorities as Villalobos Carranza, picked up Brianna on the evening of Oct. 30 and later called her making threats to harm the child, according to a bulletin from the police department.
The department issued an alert around 2:30 a.m. requesting the public’s help in locating a vehicle involved in the alleged kidnapping — a silver SUV with Washington license plates.
Police canceled the alert when they contacted Villalobos Carranza. He was taken into custody around 4:15 a.m. near Northeast Fourth Plain Boulevard and 57th Avenue in central Vancouver.
His daughter was found dead. Authorities have not released information about the circumstances of her death.
Investigators initially believed she was killed in Gresham, Ore., but the Portland Police Bureau later said that investigators determined she died in Portland.
A GoFundMe has been created for the girl’s mother to help with funeral expenses and care for another child. It had raised $16,000 as of Monday morning. To donate, visit https://bit.ly/3bChLkn.
