CALDWELL, Idaho — A teenager who shot and killed another 16-year-old in Nampa in 2018 was sentenced Friday to life in prison.
Juan Menchaca Olvera, now 17, will have to serve at least a dozen years behind bars before he will become eligible for parole.
Menchaca Olvera was charged as an adult with first-degree murder, despite being 16 years old when he fired the shots that killed Roberto Angel Gomez of Nampa.
Authorities say the defendant had robbed Gomez at gunpoint days before the Sept. 25, 2018 shooting. Gomez was struck by bullets in the street outside his home at Powell Avenue and 11th Avenue North in Nampa.
Paramedics rushed the teen to the hospital, but he died from his wounds.
The shooting went unsolved for months, until investigators zeroed in on Menchaca Olvera as the killer. He was indicted by a grand jury later that year, then convicted of murder and robbery after a trial in May.
Menchaca Olvera was sentenced to seven years on the robbery count, but that sentence will run at the same time as his murder sentence, a judge ruled.
Court records indicate Menchaca Olvera will serve at least the beginning of his sentence at an Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections facility. He will receive credit for the more than a year he has spent in jail.
