Carlos Vidal Gutierrez sits in Lewis County Superior Court in Chehalis Tuesday before pleading guilty to a 1986 shooting in Centralia. Gutierrez was sentenced to the maximum 164 months for second-degree murder.
Cornelio Triana of Centralia holds up a photograph of his brother, Efren J. Triana, in his Centralia home in March, shortly after Carlos Vidal Gutierrez was arrested for first-degree murder in connection with the cold case.
Christina Johnston, left, and Becky Torres, childhood friends of Efren J. Triana, react to Carlos Vidal Gutierrez pleading guilty to Triana's 1986 killing in Centralia.
This 1986 wanted poster shows Carlos V. Guiterrez, as he was known at the time. On Wednesday he pleaded guilty to murder in the downtown Centralia death.
Carlos Vidal Gutierrez pleaded guilty Tuesday to murdering 23-year-old Efren J. Triana in 1986 outside a Centralia bar.
Gutierrez, 55, was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison for second-degree murder by Judge James Lawler in Lewis County Superior Court. He received 245 days credit for time already served since he was arrested last March in Hollister, Calif.
Gutierrez shot Triana outside La Adeleta Tavern in the 100 block of West Main Street downtown Centralia shortly after midnight on Oct. 25, 1986. The first bullet grazed Triana’s head; the next three were shot in his back.
“Justice has finally been served. It’s been a long 25 years,” said retired Centralia Police Detective Lt. Ed Teitzel.
Within hours after the shooting, Teitzel said police knew Gutierrez’s identity and the car he’d try to leave town in. They also knew he was heading to Yakima.
But Gutierrez slipped past authorities at White Pass on U.S. Highway 12. And he went on the lam in California before they could catch up with him in Yakima.
“He had a wife at some point in time, and he had four children, so he went on with his life,” Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead said in court.
In June 2010 The Chronicle featured Gutierrez as a “Most Wanted” suspect in a front-page article, which highlighted cold-case detective Tracy Wiese’s work on the case. An agent with a U.S. Marshals Service task force in Seattle read the article and began working on the case.
The agent took Gutierrez into custody on March 23. He found him working in a field outside Hollister, about 95 miles southeast of San Francisco.
“They did a wonderful job,” Cornelio Triana, Efren J. Triana’s oldest brother, said of the ongoing investigation two decades later.
Efren J. Triana was one of four brothers; he had three sisters.
About a dozen family members and friends of Triana attended Gutierrez’s sentencing.
Becky Torres was a friend of Triana’s and a bartender at La Adeleta Tavern.
Torres also knew Gutierrez.
“He was asking about (Triana) all night,” Torres said.
Police are unsure why Gutierrez shot Triana. There’s been speculation that there was an argument that night about a girl.
Witnesses say Gutierrez asked Triana to follow him outside the bar to fight.
Gutierrez pulled out a handgun and began firing instead.
Wiese said initially police had about 10 witnesses in the case. But since Gutierrez was arrested, that list grew to 20.
At least half of the witnesses claim they saw Gutierrez shoot Triana, Wiese said.
Gutierrez eluded police by going by several names.
Torres said no one knew his real name in 1986.
“He was very obnoxious, very cocky,” Torres said.
Last March, Cornelio Triana said his brother had lived in Centralia since he was 12. He did not marry or have kids.
In court, Gutierrez was noted to have an immigration hold on him by federal authorities. Halstead said he will likely be deported when he completes his sentence with the state Department of Corrections.
Judge Lawler sentenced Gutierrez to the full range of the conviction.
“He absconded for 25 years, leaving this family wondering,” Lawler said. “He lived his own life. The victim’s family weren’t able to do that.”
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Adam Pearson: (360) 807-8208
