Ex-Boyfriend Sentenced To 66-Year Term For Shootings

A 21-year-old Okanogan County man has been sentenced to 66 years in prison for shooting his ex-girlfriend and her sister and killing their mother.

Jose Antonio Hernandez Sanchez told a visiting Superior Court judge he wanted to be executed to give his victims peace. That wasn’t an option, though, because he was convicted last month of ordinary first-degree murder, not aggravated murder.

Hernandez Sanchez also was convicted of attempted second-degree murder, two counts of first-degree assault, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree escape.

On May 17, Hernandez Sanchez followed his 17-year-old ex-girlfriend, Jannette Covarrubias-Rodriguez, and her sister and mother to a mobile home in Ellisforde, Wash., where he opened fire with a .380-caliber semi-automatic pistol.

Covarrubias-Rodriguez was shot twice, and her 12-year-old sister, Brenda, was shot three times before Hernandez Sanchez took her as a hostage. He forced the girl to translate for about a halfhour before surrendering to sheriff’s deputies.

The victims’ mother, Cirila Rodriguez, was killed.