Columbus man, 24, gets life sentence for Fourth of July killing

Jonathan Luna, 24, received a life sentence, with the possibility of extended supervision after 30 years, on Tuesday afternoon in Columbia County Court. He was convicted on Nov. 7 of killing Jose De Jesus Fuentes Hernandez, 42, also of Columbus, more than 18 months ago.

Columbia County Judge Roger Klopp made Luna eligible for extended supervision on July 5, 2054, 30 years after he was arrested for the killing.

"It could have been better but as far as I know, he probably won't be out for another 28 years," Juan Fuentes, Jose's younger brother, said after the sentencing hearing.

When testifying at the hearing, Fuentes and his and Jose's mother, Teresa Fuentes, told Luna that he will see them in his dreams while he is incarcerated. Juan Fuentes added that his older brother was "the only person I could ever talk to."

Teresa Fuentes spoke Spanish and her testimony was translated to English through an interpreter.

"I am left dead but with life," Teresa Fuentes said at the hearing, adding that Jose had dreams and was always doing for others, and that Luna "ruined everything in one second."

Teresa Fuentes said that she has not slept nor eaten well since her son was killed. Stephanie Beaver, a friend of Fuentes Hernandez, said that he quietly donated to Columbus area schools and organizations.

"This was not just the loss of a life," Beaver said at the hearing. "It was the destruction of a future."

Prior to his sentencing, Luna tearfully apologized to the Fuentes family while telling a story of watching his father die from alcohol-related illnesses and how his death caused him to develop his own alcohol addiction.

"I lost my father, too," Juan Fuentes said after the hearing. "Both my older brothers raised me. I never turned to alcohol to forget about losing my dad. I think he was trying to make the judge feel bad for him."

Marcos Reyes, who represented Luna, requested extended supervision eligibility after 20 years. Reyes added that Luna's younger siblings see him as a "father figure" and that the decision to kill Fuentes Hernandez was made in the "heat of the moment."

According to a criminal complaint filed July 5, 2024:

A Columbus Police officer responded to a report of fireworks in the area of Mill Street in downtown Columbus around 1:30 a.m. on July 4. The officer received a follow-up report shortly after of a fight outside a bar on East James Street and arrived to find Jose De Jesus Fuentes Hernandez in a pool of blood.

Fuentes Hernandez was pronounced dead around 2 a.m. on the holiday from a single gunshot wound that punctured both of his lungs.

A man who was with Fuentes Hernandez the night he was killed, and was shot at but not hit, said they did not know Luna but had a verbal altercation with him. Fuentes Hernandez pushed Luna's hand down after he started recording them with his phone.

Later that night, the two men saw Luna, who began following and yelling at them. After they escaped into a doorway, Luna began firing shots. Fuentes Hernandez tried to get Luna to calm down, but he fired additional shots.

Video footage at Luna's apartment building showed that he returned to his apartment to get a gun and went back to the bar. After shooting Fuentes Hernandez, Luna disposed of his gun in a storm drain near Dickason Boulevard in Columbus.

Luna was located at a hotel in Madison and admitted in custody at Columbia County Jail that he saw the two men at the bar and that they were making hand gestures at him, which he tried to record before getting his hand swatted.

He claimed he blacked out from drinking and did not remember going back to get his gun. However, he remembered waiting for the two men to come out of the bar, saying that he confronted them and flashed his gun.

After initially firing shots to scare them, he saw them again and fired more shots, seeing one of the men fall.

Columbia County District Attorney Brenda Yaskal referred to nearly all of Luna's actions as "poor choices," adding that his only "good choice" was to leave the bar, but that he negated that by coming back with the gun.

"Guns and alcohol do not mix," she said in her closing argument.

Reyes said Luna has attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings since being in custody.