MESA, AZ — After years of delays, the man accused of killing a QT store clerk over a pack of cigarettes in Mesa in 2015 has been sentenced to 38.5 years in prison.
As part of a plea agreement, the defendant in the case, Apolinar Altamirano, was sentenced Friday.
Altamirano is an undocumented immigrant who was awaiting deportation proceedings when he shot and killed 21-year-old Grant Ronnebeck, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The murder of Ronnebeck became front-and-center in the national debate over immigration policy, and Grant's dad, Steve Ronnebeck, became part of Donald Trump's "angel families."
“It shouldn’t have taken this long, in any way, shape, or form,” said Steve Ronnebeck, but he added he’s thankful that the case is at this point now.
The Maricopa County Attorney's Office tried to make this a death penalty case, and the hearings and appeals on the issue dragged on for years. Ultimately, the Arizona Supreme Court denied a death penalty prosecution because it's unconstitutional to put someone to death who is deemed to have limited mental capacity.
Last summer, ABC15 reported the Ronnebeck family had previously supported a plea deal only to have prosecutors refuse it.
Ronnebeck traveled across the country and pressed for immigration policy changes and a better border wall in an effort to keep criminal immigrants out of the country, but now he expects that chapter to end too.
“There’s nothing that will bring Grant back,” said Ronnebeck, “I think after [Friday], I’m just going to go back to being a very quiet, normal human being and just go back to living life,” he said.
