Man pleads guilty in Wichita teen’s 2019 shooting death cops say was part of gang feud
A 22-year-old Wichita man pleaded guilty on Monday to second-degree intentional murder, criminal discharge of a firearm and aggravated assault in the Aug. 4, 2019, death of a Wichita teen killed in a shooting police have said was part of a gang feud.
Eduardo Gallardo and two others — a juvenile and a 23-year-old man, Jesus Alvarez-Medina — were charged in the slaying of 17-year-old Ramiro Antonio Valdez Jr., a landscaper who had been preparing to start his senior year at Wichita North High School. Police have said Valdez died after someone in a pickup truck carrying documented gang members fired several rounds from a rifle into the Chevrolet Silverado that Valdez had been driving in downtown with other teens early that morning.
Valdez was driving east on Central around 2:35 a.m. when the pickup started following him, police have said. He died at a Wichita hospital from a gunshot wound to his back, according to autopsy records. Two other teens in the Chevy weren’t hurt.
A probable cause affidavit released by a Sedgwick County judge says Gallardo was driving the pickup that pulled alongside Valdez so the shooter could open fire. He is scheduled for sentencing on June 1. Gallardo entered the guilty plea ahead of a jury trial where prosecutors had planned to try him for first-degree felony murder and criminal discharge of a firearm at an occupied vehicle, court records show. The trial had been scheduled to start Monday.
The man accused of pulling the trigger, Alvarez-Medina, is still wanted on a warrant of first-degree felony murder.
A criminal case filed against the juvenile was dismissed without prejudice in January 2021, according to court records. The Eagle generally does not name juvenile defendants in criminal cases unless they are charged as adults. A dismissal “without prejudice” means prosecutors can file the case again at a later date.
This story was originally published March 28, 2023 at 2:04 PM.
