18-year-old pleads guilty in 2022 shooting of teenager, woman in Salem
An 18-year-old Salem man was sentenced Thursday in Marion County Circuit Court to 70 months in prison in the August 2022 shooting of a teenage girl and a woman at the parking lot of a Salem apartment complex.
Saul Sosa-Medina, who was 17 when the shooting took place, pleaded guilty in juvenile court to attempted assault and unlawful possession of a firearm, and as an adult to assault with a firearm.
“In some respects, this is Christmas come early for you,” Judge Lindsay Partridge told Sosa-Medina.
“The only reason you’re not here on a murder charge is luck,” the judge said.
At about 1 a.m. on Aug. 8, 2022, Sosa-Medina fired one shot in the parking lot of the Evergreen Park Apartments, Marion County Deputy District Attorney Brendan Murphy said.
Three women were standing across the parking lot, and two were struck: a 17-year-old girl was shot in the hip and a 23-year-old woman was shot in her hand and right hip, Murphy said. Both were taken to a nearby hospital, where they were treated for their injuries and recovered, he said.
Sosa-Medina fled, and after Salem Police arrested him about an hour later near Englewood Park he initially denied firing the gun, Murphy said.
During his Thursday hearing, he told the judge he wasn’t trying to kill anyone.
“I, um, discharged a firearm towards them,” Sosa-Media said.
Though Sosa-Medina admitted in court to shooting the women, he did not give a reason why he fired the gun, and investigators didn’t discover that, either.
“This is a scary situation because the investigation did not reveal why he discharged the firearm,” Murphy said.
Sosa-Medina was on parole from the Oregon Youth Authority at the time of the shooting, Murphy told the court. Court records show he was charged with robbery and burglary in 2020.
Since he has been in custody since 2022, Sosa-Medina said he has earned his GED.
The judge said he will serve his sentence at MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn and be eligible for a “second look” after 35 months, which will be in 15 months due to credit for the time he has been in jail. At that point, he could be released or continue to serve part or the rest of the sentence.
Sosa-Medina also will be on parole for three years.
Bill Poehler covers Marion and Polk County for the Statesman Journal. Contact him at bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Salem youth sentenced to 5 years in 2022 shooting of two
