The Case Of Cesar Valenzuela-Campos

A Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office investigator on Tuesday outlined a motive for the Dec. 12 fatal shooting of a 20-year-old man along State Route 255 in Manila, saying three of the five suspects admitted to taking part in the shooting.

The day after the shooting, Cesar Valenzuela-Campos, 23, admitted to riding in the car that pulled up behind Tyson Claros minutes before he was shot, investigator Todd Fulton said. Tamara Thompson, 18, allegedly admitted the crime to a jail-house informant and Brandon Mitchell allegedly told a family friend, who called the detective, he’d become remorseful over the killing.

“He said that he knew that Catie had lied to him and that he basically killed somebody for no good reason, and he could spend the rest of

“I’m not the guy you want,” Valenzuela-Campos could be heard saying on the recording.

By his accounts, Thompson, Godoy-Standley and Thompson were driving around Eureka in a Red Dodge Dart on the night before the shooting. At some point, Thompson leaves, and the remaining two decide to pick up Fode, Godoy-Standley’s alleged girlfriend, and the father of her daughter, Mitchell.

“They had (meth) and we were supposed to get McDonalds,” Valenzuela-Campos said on the recording. “And, one thing led to another, led to another.”

On the recording, he said he wanted to leave, but before he could, they were driving over the Samoa Bridge and before long Godoy-Standley and Mitchell descended on Claros car that had stopped on the road. He spotted Thompson in the car too.

“I was pissed,” he said on the recording. “I was like ‘your with another dude?’”

Pressed by Fulton, Valenzuela-Campos could be heard conceding to at least temporarily coming in contact with a firearm during the incident and driving off with his girlfriend in Claros’ car. He maintained he was oblivious to a plot between his girlfriend and the other to shoot