A 21-year-old Centralia man has been sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for the New Year’s morning shooting of a Salem juvenile girl at a home in the 1300 block of North Trenary Street.
Diego Barradas of South Brookside pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon in exchange for charges of aggravated battery via discharge of a firearm and aggravated discharge of a firearm involving an occupied vehicle being dropped.
The juvenile girl was reportedly shot in the abdomen as she was laying on a couch as Barradas was trying to get her to perform a sex act on another man. State’s Attorney Tim Hudspeth earlier said that Barradas had placed the gun under the blanket around the girl before the shot was fired. Barradas then reportedly backed away and asked the girl if she fired the gun, even though her hands were nowhere near the weapon. The girl rolled onto the floor after realizing she had been shot and Barradas ran from the house. He was arrested a short time later following a traffic stop.
The juvenile girl was initially taken to Salem Township Hospital and then airlifted to a St. Louis Hospital. She was later released and gave police a statement about the shooting. There was also a video of the incident from a surveillance system in the home.
Court records indicate Barradas was on two years probation at the time of the incident for non consensual dissemination of a sex image as well as two years probation in Fayette County on a conviction for felony criminal damage to government property.
