A choose sentenced an Ocean Park man Friday to greater than 43 years in jail for the 2022 deadly drive-by capturing of a Vancouver man.
A Clark County Superior Courtroom jury discovered Yana Cook dinner, 27, responsible March 20 of first-degree homicide.
Decide John Fairgrieve stated there was sturdy proof that the capturing that killed 26-year-old Branden Lombardo was premeditated. He famous proof introduced at trial that Cook dinner and one other individual waited within the car parking zone of an house advanced for hours for Lombardo to reach. Cook dinner and the opposite individual then adopted Lombardo’s automotive earlier than pulling alongside it, at which level Cook dinner shot Lombardo within the head, the choose recounted.
Senior Deputy Prosecutor Dan Gasperino requested the choose Friday to condemn Cook dinner on the prime of the sentencing vary. He famous Cook dinner’s prolonged prison historical past, which included firearms crimes and an assault conviction. He additionally pointed to the severity of the capturing close to the busy intersection of Northeast Fourth Plain Boulevard and sixty fifth Avenue in central Vancouver.
“What we saw was in the trial is the definition of premeditation,” Gasperino stated.
Protection legal professional Marina Spencer requested the choose to condemn Cook dinner to the low finish of his vary. She famous that a lot of Cook dinner’s prison historical past was from when he was a juvenile and that he was a younger grownup on the time of the capturing.
Lombardo’s household informed the choose about his beneficiant persona and the way deeply his household and pals grieve his dying.
“There’s nothing in this world that will ever justify what you decided was a good idea that day,” Lombardo’s mom stated to Cook dinner, who was seated on the protection desk throughout the listening to.
Cook dinner declined to make a press release after Spencer stated she’d suggested him to not as a result of they supposed to enchantment his conviction.
Through the trial’s opening statements March 11, Gasperino described how first responders initially thought they have been investigating a deadly automotive crash.
Lombardo was pronounced useless Nov. 6, 2022, after his automotive veered off Northeast Fourth Plain Boulevard and crashed. An post-mortem revealed that he had died from a gunshot wound to the top, in response to investigators.
Gasperino stated investigators used cellphone data and surveillance video to establish Cook dinner because the shooter.
He confirmed jurors video of Lombardo’s Chevrolet leaving a close-by house advanced and being adopted by an Infiniti with its headlights off, regardless of the 8 p.m. darkness. Cook dinner could possibly be seen getting into the passenger’s aspect of the Infiniti, the prosecutor stated.
Cook dinner’s cellphone data positioned him in Vancouver the weekend of the capturing and confirmed that he left city afterward, Gasperino stated.
Cook dinner was arrested, Gasperino stated, when he arrived for a probation check-in with the Washington State Division of Corrections in Raymond.
