Kirkland Police are trying to track down a 32-year-old Kent man who faces a first-degree murder charge for allegedly shooting a man in May at a Kirkland residence over a drug dealing dispute.
King County prosecutors filed a murder charge on Tuesday against Juan Felipe Galeana-Madrigal in the shooting death of Francisco J. Mendoza, 29, on May 7 in the 9700 block of NE 138th Place.
“The defendant was an acquaintance of the victim and also supplied him with illegal narcotics,” wrote Jessica Berliner, senior deputy prosecuting attorney, in the charging papers. “The defendant deliberately executed the victim by shooting him twice in the head at close range because the victim owed him money and because he suspected that the victim was a ‘snitch’ who had cooperated with law enforcement in a federal narcotics investigation.”
Kirkland Police issued a media release this week asking for the public’s help to find Galeana-Madrigal after efforts to find him came up empty following several months of investigation into the shooting, according to a Kirkland Reporter article.
Galeana-Madrigal is Hispanic, 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighs 130 pounds. He has brown eyes and black hair. He is known to wear a a mustache with goatee and has “Famlia” tattooed on the right side of his head. He is also known to frequent motels in Auburn and other cities in South King County and has family in Tacoma. The man also has family ties in Southern California.
Prosecutors requested to a King County Superior Court judge that bail be denied when Galeana-Madrigal is found or be set at $5 million because of his “utter disregard for human life and his troubling criminal history.” Prosecutors also said he presents a danger to the community and is a flight risk.
Galeana-Madrigal failed to appear in a King County court in July on felony domestic violence charges and warrants were issued for his arrest but his whereabouts remain unknown.
Kirkland detectives learned that Mendoza reportedly dealt heroin and meth supplied to him by Galeana-Madrigal, also known as “Pelon.” Cellphone records of the two men showed that they had been in frequent and recent contact prior to the shooting. The phone records also put Galeana-Madrigal near the scene of the murder on May 7. Galeana-Madrigal also reportedly admitted to several people that he had shot Mendoza.
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