MYNORTHWEST NEWS

MyNorthwest’s weekly sentencing report: Pioneer Square drug bust, White Center kidnapping

Jun 27, 2022, 11:57 AM | Updated: 12:07 pm

sentencing...

King County Superior Court

MyNorthwest reports on King County Court sentencing from the week ending on June 27: one man was charged with intent to distribute heroin in Pioneer Square, another for connection to a kidnapping in White Center.

Man charged with intent to distribute narcotics in Pioneer Square

Jovany Cota-Valenzuela has been charged with one felony count of possession with intent to manufacture or distribute heroin.

In October of 2021, an undercover Department of Homeland Security (HSI) agent offered to exchange $2,800 for 1,000 fentanyl pills with Cota-Valenzuela in front of the Best Western Pioneer Square at 77 Yesler Way.

Upon arrest, Cota-Valenzuela was found in possession of 322 grams of heroin, 143 grams of Methamphetamine, 48 grams of cocaine and fentanyl mixture, 25 grams of fentanyl and cocaine mixture, 109 grams of blue M30 pills containing fentanyl, 152 grams of blue M30 pills containing fentanyl, an XDS 9 mm firearm, and scales.

The defendant admitted to making a deal with a Mexican cartel to sell narcotics in exchange for passage into the U.S.

Friday, Cota-Valenzuela was sentenced to 366 days.

MyNorthwest’s daily crime report: Two shootings in Tacoma, DUI in University Place

Man charged with robbery and kidnapping over White Center incident

Dominiguez Fetui has been charged with second-degree kidnapping and first-degree robbery.

In March of 2020, Seattle Police officers responded to reports of a man, bound and gagged with duct tape, rolling out of a trunk in White Center.

The victim was held in a Toyota Camry that slowed at the intersection of 16th Ave SW and SW Roxbury Street. The victim managed to roll their way out of the trunk, at which point several citizens stopped to assist. The Camry sped away, returning to the scene to circle the intersection.

Responding officers interviewed the victim, who recounted their kidnapping at a 7-11 convenience store in Kent. Description of the kidnapping provided to police involved Fetui’s coercing the victim at gunpoint to withdraw money from their bank account. The victim was driven to multiple ATMs.

After the robbery, the victim was driven to an unknown residence. They attempted escape, at which point they were bound and detained in the trunk of the Camry.

Fetui’s identity and connection to the kidnapping was partially confirmed via surveillance footage from one of the ATM locations.

Fetui was sentenced to 41 months.

KIRO Newsradio’s Hanna Scott contributed to this report. 

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MyNorthwest’s weekly sentencing report: Pioneer Square drug bust, White Center kidnapping