A Belchertown man was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for killing a man in a shooting in 2021, Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni’s office said.
Victor Oquendo, 28, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Chad Alexander, Gulluni’s office said in a statement on Tuesday. He was found not guilty in connection with another person who died around the same time as Alexander, Charleen Figueroa.
“The sentencing of Victor Oquendo brings a measure of justice in a case that has caused immense pain and loss,” Gulluni said in the statement.
In court on April 16, Oquendo was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole on the murder conviction, along with six to eight years in state prison for armed assault with intent to murder, three to five years in state prison for illegal possession of a firearm, two and a half years in jail for illegal possession of a loaded firearm. These charges are all to run concurrently with his life sentence.
At around 3:30 a.m. on Nov. 28, 2021, Springfield police were notified of shots fired in the area of West Alvord Street, Gulluni’s office said. Police found Figueroa, 22, in the driver’s seat of a car and unresponsive. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Alexander, 32, was shot outside a nearby home. He was taken to Baystate Medical Center and died from his injuries two weeks later on Dec. 11.
After a long investigation, the Springfield Police Department’s Homicide Unit received a warrant for Oquendo’s arrest in July 2022. On July 25, at around 12:55 p.m., Springfield police and Massachusetts State Police arrested Oquendo outside an apartment on North Main St. in Belchertown.
“While no sentence can undo the harm done, we hope this outcome brings some sense of closure and peace to the involved families and loved ones,” Gulluni said in his statement.