Drive-By Gunman Receives Over 22 Years in Prison for Ellensburg Shooting

A judge sentenced a man to over 22-years in prison for a gang-related drive by shooting in Ellensburg on the Fourth of July last year.

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The Ellensburg Daily Record reports 32-year-old Omar Ornelas-Villa pled guilty to second-degree assault, drive by shooting and unlawful possession of a firearm Thursday in Kittitas County Superior Court.

Police arrested Ornelas-Villa the day after the incident at JR's Economart on West University Way last year. He argued with a man pumping fuel at the gas station, and as he left, the other man grabbed a squeegee and started hitting Ornelas-Villa's vehicle. He stopped his vehicle and fired three shots at the man, leaving bullet holes by the gas pump and another at a nearby motel.

Prosecutors described that shooting as additional fallout from the murder of then 17-year-old Benny Lee Castizo after he gunned down 23-year-old Christian Guthrie. They say Ornelas-Villa had a personal connection to the victim.

Ornelas-Villa faces a total of 272-and-a-half months in prison with a year-and-a-half of parole to follow. The sentencing also took his extensive criminal record, including 14 felonies and 17 gross misdemeanors, into account. Ornelas-Villa was on parole at the time of the shooting and had just been released from prison after serving over seven yerars in prison for burglary.