Man, juvenile face murder charges in Kent student’s death

A 20-year-old Auburn man and 16-year-old Auburn boy each face first-degree murder charges in the June 2024 shooting of a Kent-Meridian High School student.

Jorge Mauricio Gonzalez Alvarado, 20, and the juvenile, allegedly caused the death of Cristopher Yahir Medina-Zelaya, 18, during the attempted robbery of marijuana that Medina-Zelaya had agreed to sell to them on June 3, 2024 at the city of Kent’s Campus Park, next to the high school, according to charging documents filed June 11 by King County prosecutors. Medina-Zelaya died from a gunshot wound of the head, according to the King County Medical Examiner’s Office.

The Kent Reporter is not naming the juvenile because he has not been formally charged in adult court. A court hearing scheduled for Jan. 12, 2026 before a judge will consider the state’s motion to move the case to adult court, according to a June 18 email from a King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office spokesperson, who also confirmed the boy is in custody at the Patricia Clark Children and Family Justice Center in Seattle. The boy was 15 years old at the time of the shooting.

Gonzalez Alvarado remains in custody at the King County Correctional Facility in Seattle with bail set at $3 million, according to jail records. He also faces a possession of a stolen vehicle charge. He is scheduled to be arraigned June 25 at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.

Kent Police arrested Gonzalez Alvarado on June 9, according to Kent Police. Federal Way Police arrested the juvenile June 6 on an unrelated charge.

Gonzalez Alvarado allegedly drove the car to help the juvenile flee the scene after the early afternoon killing, according to charging documents.

“The defendant (Gonzalez Alvarado) voluntarily agreed to assist in carrying out a robbery that resulted in the murder of Kent-Meridian High School student Cristopher Medina-Zelaya,” wrote Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Brent Kling in charging documents. “Under the guise of an apparent transaction to purchase marijuana from the victim, the defendant and others traveled to the victim’s location with the actual intention of robbing him.”

Kling wrote that Gonzalez Alvarado communicated with other participants about the plan, including the juvenile accomplice who orchestrated the robbery through his direct messaging with Medina-Zelaya over Instagram.

“The defendant was aware that others with him would be armed with a firearm and that they needed his assistance, specifically to drive to and from the scene,” Kling wrote.

The 16-year-old juvenile allegedly set up the drug deal and planned the robbery, according to charging papers.

Kent detectives used information from witnesses, Flock cameras (posted at several intersections across town), surveillance video and Instagram and cellphone accounts to build the case.

Two juvenile witnesses were skipping school and watching a movie in a vehicle at Campus Park and driving away when they heard a gunshot on June 3, 2024. They saw a guy pulling on a black bag from a person laying on the ground. The guy with the bag got into a nearby waiting car, described as an older Prius. They said multiple people were inside the Prius when it left the park.

A witness at a nearby apartment complex told police that after hearing a gunshot, she saw a vehicle leaving the park with a yellow square or rectangle sticker on the back seat passenger side window.

A detective used the suspect vehicle information to go through footage from the city’s Flock cameras and spotted a silver Toyota Prius with a yellow sticker a day prior to the murder about 14 blocks from the scene, according to charging papers. The camera captured the license plate and a state Department of Licensing check showed the Prius had been stolen June 1, 2024 out of SeaTac, reportedly at gunpoint in a carjacking.

Detectives used that information while reviewing surveillance video in the area of Campus Park and surrounding streets. They eventually saw that the Prius had been spotted in multiple areas near Lea Hill in Auburn. A detective found the car abandoned June 4, 2024 in the 12200 block of SE 316th Street in Auburn.

Video surveillance review by detectives showed the Prius traveled on SE 316th Street and SE 312th Way, where detectives conducted a property search. They reportedly found a backpack and other items belonging to Medina-Zelaya. Video from Kent-Meridian High showed he had a backpack with him prior to his killing, but no backpack was found near or around his body following the shooting.

Another witness told detectives that Medina-Zelaya was in class at Kent-Meridian the morning of the killing and had been in communication with someone on Instagram. That witness told police Medina-Zelaya left the school to meet with a prearranged buyer of marijuana, a deal he had been working on for a couple of days, according to charging documents.

Detectives eventually were able to confirm the Auburn juvenile’s involvement after obtaining search warrants for an Instagram account connected to him, according to charging papers. That also led to finding communications via Instagram with others the boy knew, including plans for the robbery, the driver Gonzalez Alvarado and confirmation after the shooting that Medina-Zelaya had been shot.

Detectives used cellphone records to help put the suspects in the area of the killing as well as the travels of the Toyota Prius.

Kent Police have not reported that detectives are looking for other suspects in the killing of Medina-Zelaya, although charging documents indicate two other potential juveniles involved in communications with the 16-year-old boy. Police have not yet responded to a Kent Reporter email about whether other suspects remain at large.

Medina-Zelaya was the first of two Kent-Meridian High School students fatally shot in a three-day period in June 2024.

Hazrat Ali Rohani, 17, was shot June 5, 2024 outside a Big 5 Sporting Goods Store in Renton. Aaron Brown Myers, of Newcastle, faces a second-degree murder charge in that case. Myers is on electronic home detention and faces a trial date of Sept. 9, although the trial date has been continued numerous times at the request of attorneys.