Man sentenced in 2019 shooting that left four dead at Kansas City, Kansas bar
A man charged in a mass shooting at a Kansas City, Kansas bar in 2019 has been found guilty on eight counts, including capital murder.
A Wyandotte County jury voted Wednesday to convict Hugo Alberto Villanueva-Morales, 35, of capital murder of more than one victim, as well as attempted premeditated first-degree murder, criminal possession of a firearm and five counts of aggravated assault.
Villanueva-Morales is one of two suspects charged in the Oct. 6, 2019 shooting at Tequila KC Bar, which left four people dead and five others injured.
The shooting took place shortly after 1:30 a.m., according to a Kansas City, Kansas Police Department spokesperson. Officers saw several people running out of the bar as they responded to reports of shots fired at the bar at 1013 Central Ave., according to the spokesperson.
Witnesses described two men, later identified as Villanueva-Morales and 29-year-old Javier Alatorre, entering the bar and firing more than a dozen shots into the crowd of approximately 40 patrons. The same was later seen on surveillance video reviewed by investigators, according to court records.
Everardo Meza, 29; Alfredo Calderon Jr., 29; Francisco Garcia Anaya, 34; and Martin Rodriguez-Gonzalez, 58, were killed in the shooting.
Jose Valdez, who was bartending at Tequila KC on the night of the shooting, previously told The Star that one of the men had previously been ejected from the bar and responded by throwing a cup at a bartender. Another patron said that it had taken four people to remove the man from the space before he returned with a gun.
KCKPD previously told The Star that investigators believe the shooting was targeted, though not racially motivated. Both men were initially charged with four counts of first-degree murder each, according to court records.
Alatorre was arrested in Kansas City, Missouri the day after the shooting. He pleaded guilty in December 2023 to four counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced in February 2024 to 22 years and three months in prison.
Villanueva-Morales, however, fled the country via Texas and remained at large for several weeks after the shooting, police said. He was arrested by state police in Michoacán, southwest Mexico, in December 2019 and extradited to Kansas, where he was booked into the Wyandotte County Detention Center on a $1 million bond.
Tequila KC closed for about two weeks after the shooting, but reopened at the request of regular patrons and community members, owner Erik Gomez told The Star in 2019.
A sentencing hearing for Villanueva-Morales is scheduled for 9 a.m. July 1 in Wyandotte County court.
