Teen Pleads Innocent In Murder Of Immigrant 3 Charged In Car-Theft Plot That Resulted In Slaying Of Defector

One of three teenagers charged in the shooting death of a Georgian immigrant pleaded innocent Friday to second-degree murder.

A Sept. 2 trial was scheduled for Ricardo Sanchez, who entered the plea in Benton County Superior Court. The 18-year-old was being held in the county jail in lieu of $200,000 bond.

Sanchez’ 14-year-old brother, Valentin, and the third defendant, 15-year-old Jose Angel Munguia, are being held in juvenile detention pending a hearing next week to determine whether they will be tried as adults.

Under Washington law, only 16-and 17-year-old juveniles charged with murder may automatically be tried as adults.

Mungia, of Grandview, is charged with aggravated first-degree murder, and Valentin Sanchez with second-degree murder.

According to court documents, Munguia shot Guivi Darbeliani in the head July 4 in a plot to rob him and steal his recently purchased 1995 Dodge Avenger.

The Sanchez brothers, both of Prosser, cooperated in the plot, prosecutors allege.

Darbeliani, 27, of Prosser, had previously given the Sanchez brothers rides in his car, and the brothers and Munguia asked him for a ride to Sunnyside on the day of the slaying, prosecutors allege.

After Darbeliani drove the three to an isolated area outside Prosser, Munguia ordered him out of the car and shot him, prosecutors allege.

The three eventually drove off in the car.

Four days after the slaying, Darbeliani’s body was found in an irrigation canal west of Prosser. An autopsy determined he died of three gunshot wounds to the head.

Ricardo Sanchez was arrested July 9 after he was spotted driving Darbeliani’s car in Pasco, sheriff’s authorities said. Valentin Sanchez was arrested later that day, and Munguia turned himself in to authorities July 11.

Darbeliani defected in Prosser in 1992 after coming to the area with a soccer team from the Republic of Georgia in the former Soviet Union.

He made friends easily and worked with special-education students at the Prosser School District. This was his third summer as a counselor for the city’s summer youth camp.

Several of his former co-workers and others in Prosser are forming a task force that will seek to encourage teens to choose alternatives to violence.