Tacoma teens get ‘adult-size sentence’ for brutal murder

Two Tacoma teens will spend the next several decades in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree murder for the brutal killing of a 15-year-old boy in their home.

Luis Arroyo, 17, was sentenced to over 26 years in prison, while his brother Cristobal Arroyo, 15, was sentenced to 24 years.

“They bled the body out in a bathtub, videotaped the victim while he was dying and then dumped the body in a garbage bin outside the house,” said Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist.

The court agreed with prosecutors that both teens deserved to be treated as adults.

“The Defendants plead guilty to an adult-sized crime, Murder One, and received adult-sized sentences,” Lindquist said.

An autopsy found the victim was stabbed or cut more than 34 times in the head, neck, back, hands, and chest. There were approximately 60 small puncture wounds on the victim’s back and his skull was fractured, likely caused by a baseball bat or hammer.

Prosecutors said the killing followed a fight in the boys home. Their mother notified police after coming home and finding blood stains on the floor. The boys claimed it was chili, but then told her a man had attacked them and they were forced to kill him. She discovered the victim’s body upstairs and drove to the neighborhood police station to report the crime. Officers found the victim’s body wrapped in a blanket, in a recycling bin in the alley behind their house.