LONGVIEW  A Vancouver man was sentenced to over 20 years over the 2023 fatal shooting of his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend. Jaime Llamas-Hernandez, 39, accepted a plea deal with prosecutors allowing him to avoid a murder charge over the shooting death of Anthony Allen Jennings Jr. in Kelso. He initially faced 10 charges, then they grew to 13, but on Thursday, Llamas-Hernandez pleaded guilty to five charges: first-degree manslaughter, first-degree burglary, felony stalking, unlawful possession, and eluding police. His concurrent sentence is for 23 years and four months in state prison. “I shot at him,” Llamas-Hernandez said via a translator at a Thursday hearing. Cowlitz County Superior Court Judge Thad Scudder accepted the plea deal but decided to impose a higher sentence for the manslaughter charge.

According to court documents, the shooting took place on Sept. 5, 2023, when Llamas-Hernandez arrived uninvited, with a gun, to his ex-girlfriend’s residence located on the 600 block of North Fourth Avenue in Kelso, north of Central Christian Church of Kelso. Llamas-Hernandez went upstairs and saw his ex’s new boyfriend, Jennings, on her bed, which led to an argument between them. Llamas-Hernandez removed the gun from his pocket and pointed it at Jennings. Jennings fled through the back door, climbed up the side of the house, and entered his girlfriend’s room to grab his own gun — a .22 caliber revolver — before going downstairs. As stated in the memorandum, Jennings pointed the gun at Llamas-Hernandez. The police report states that security camera footage obtained by the police captured Jennings’ voice yelling, “Put the f**king gun down.” He repeated himself again a minute later, followed by the sound of gunfire.

Nine shots in total were fired, killing Jennings. Llamas-Hernandez was reportedly heard saying “he pointed a gun at me, I don’t play.” Llamas-Hernandez fled in a gray Nissan Murano and was spotted by a Woodland police officer traveling in the southbound lanes of Interstate 5, driving of over 100 mph while passing other cars on both the right and left shoulders. He later collided with another vehicle at the intersection of 88th Street and 62nd Avenue in Vancouver, after a standoff with SWAT he was transported to the hospital.