OLYMPIA, Wash. — For nearly 30 years, Shauna Montoya has felt safe living in her west Olympia neighborhood.
But that changed last month when she found her adult son bleeding in the middle of the street in front of her home.
“It was a random, senseless act of unthinkable, brutal violence,” said Shauna Montoya.
Early in the morning of April 30, her son, Nathaniel “Alex” Montoya was stabbed to death. The 37-year-old leaves behind a 13-year-old son.
Days after the murder, police arrested four men in connection with the killing: Steven Johnson, and three of his sons, Kevin, Michael, and Mathew Johnson.
Kevin Johnson was charged with the murder of Montoya. Detectives believe he is the one who stabbed Montoya.
Prosecutors charged Kevin Johnson’s father and brothers with rendering criminal assistance and evidence tampering.
According to investigators, the Johnsons had been living in an RV near Shauna Montoya’s West Olympia home for a couple of months.
The Johnsons told detectives someone had banged on their door in the middle of the night telling them to leave the neighborhood.
They drove around looking for that person, and when they saw Montoya walking alone, they attacked him, after presuming he had banged on their door, according to detectives.
Shauna Montoya said her son would not have bothered the men in the RV. She thinks he was just the first person they saw.
Father Steven Johnson pleaded guilty Monday to the evidence tampering and rendering criminal assistance charges. He will be sentenced next month.
Shauna Montoya said she was told Johnson could get a year in prison.
She hopes the sons will get longer sentences, especially the one charged in her son’s murder when they go to trial in July.
“I repeat that scene in my head every day,” said Montoya, “But I don’t want that to be the last memory I have. They’re not going to steal anything else away from us.”