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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Federal drug ring suspects implicated in downtown shooting

Stafone Fuentes, 29, faces attempted murder charge

Stafone Fuentes (Spokane Police Department)
From staff reports
One of 39 suspects indicted Thursday on federal drug possession and sale charges has been formally charged in a shooting that shut down a downtown music venue for a brief time in February 2013. Stafone Fuentes, 29, faces an attempted first-degree murder charge after an informant told police Fuentes fired the .38 rounds that struck a man sitting in a car near the Knitting Factory on Feb. 18, 2013. Under cover of a fight occurring in the parking lot of the venue following a joint Valentine’s Day and birthday party, Fuentes walked up to the window of the vehicle and shot the man in the arm and stomach, according to the informant. A passenger in the car also received a gunshot wound. Both men were treated and released from the hospital. The driver told police he and Fuentes had argued about a woman prior to the shooting. It’s not the first time Fuentes has been implicated in shooting violence. He was charged with assault stemming from a November 2011 incident at a Spokane motel during which Jose J. “Junior” Solis, a 21-year-old rapper from Moses Lake, was killed. Fuentes was later acquitted by a jury of the charges. Fuentes was also listed among the 39 named defendants facing federal drug charges after law enforcement searched at least a dozen Spokane residences early Thursday. According to investigators, Fuentes and the other defendants sold ecstasy, oxycodone, methamphetamine and PCP in a drug ring that allegedly spanned at least four states. The informant, who is not named in court documents, told police Fuentes laughed as he admitted to the shooting a few hours later. Fuentes called his gun “baby” and said he “felt like a god” after the shooting, the informant told police. Prosecutors are requesting a bond of $250,000 for Fuentes on the attempted murder charge. He is scheduled to make an appearance in Spokane County Superior Court this afternoon. He has been in Spokane County Jail since early February on other drug-related charges, according to jail records. Cierra White, 19, also faces charges of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder stemming from the February 2013 shooting, according to Spokane Police. She, too, has been charged by federal authorities in the alleged the drug ring.