Juan Santos-Quintero found guilty of all five charges

UPDATE: Judge Simpson has found Juan Santos-Quintero guilty of all five charges: three counts of aggravated assault or battery upon certain personnel, one count of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, and one count of grand theft and possession of stolen property.

Sentencing for Santos-Quintero will be held in Blackfoot on June 26.

Judge Simpson has also ordered a pre-sentence investigation.

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UPDATE:

After the State of Idaho called upon 22 witnesses, the defense decided not to call any. The defense also didn’t make an opening statement or present any evidence.

Juan Santos-Quintero chose not to testify.

In closing, the state pleaded with Judge Simpson to consider the suspect guilty of all five counts. The defense argued that no one ever actually saw who fired the gun or could confirm that Santos-Quintero actually had it on him at any point in time.

Additionally, the defense argued that the admissions to the Bonneville County deputies were “untrustworthy” since no recording of the conversation exists.

Both the prosecution and defense have rested their cases.

Judge Simpson said he believes he’ll be able to render a decision before 5 p.m. Wednesday.

UPDATE:

By the noon lunch recess, 20 witnesses had taken the stand. Among them was Tamara Salazar, a forensics expert with the Idaho State Police.

Salazar was responsible for processing Quintero’s toxicology report, the results of which came back positive for both methamphetamine and amphetamine.

Jose Hernandez-Gomez, Quintero’s stepfather, also testified. Hernandez-Gomez, speaking through an interpreter, said he received a call from Quintero on Sept. 21, 2018, during which Juan said he was “scared that officers would kill him.”

Hernandez-Gomez said Juan never explained why he felt he was in danger, but said he was surrounded.

Hernandez-Gomez was interviewed by officers over the phone that night, but he was unable to recall what he had told them in court, saying he has a bad memory.

The interview was recorded and Judge Simpson allowed Hernandez-Gomez to listen back to the audio during the recess.

At this time, it remains unclear exactly what he told officers.

More updates to follow.

ORIGINAL:

With the second day of proceedings in the Juan Santos-Quintero trial underway Wednesday, witnesses involved in the negotiation process say that Quintero admitted to shooting Bingham County Sgt. Todd Howell several times during negotiations.

Lt. James Foster and Sgt. Karl Noah, both of the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office, both said that Quintero admitted, several times, that he had shot Sgt. Howell.

They say it was Quintero’s fear of being shot for shooting “a cop” that kept negotiations going for over an hour.

Foster and Noah also both said Quintero had admitted to having a firearm on him.

When negotiators promised Quintero, who they were referring to as “Junior,” that he would not be shot if he surrendered, he eventually agreed to come out.

Quintero told Foster he would be on the phone with his mother when he exited the Firth residence but failed to inform him he would also be holding a “large bottle of alcohol in the other.”

After being tackled and taken into custody, Foster gave Quintero a bottle of water, two cigarettes and a chance to speak to Denise Williams, all of which he had been promised during negotiations.

Quintero was then checked out by medical teams before eventually being sent to EIRMC for issues relating to drugs he had taken earlier.

At no time during this process was Quintero tested for residue, to see if he had actually fired the weapon.

Sgt. Noah testified there was no need to do the testing since Quintero had already admitted to shooting Howell and due to the fact the tests are notorious for false positives.

Only four witnesses testified Wednesday, bringing the total for the trial to 18. The state plans to have 29 testify.

Updates will be added as the trial continues.

You can view our previous story HERE.