Henry Gonzales pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 2025 shooting death of 45-year-old scooter rider Porfirio Medina.

PHOENIX, Ariz. — A teenager who fatally shot a 45-year-old scooter rider after a traffic confrontation in Phoenix has been sentenced to 14 years in state prison, closing the central criminal case nearly a year after the roadside encounter ended in Porfirio Medina’s death.

Henry Gonzales pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter, which the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office described as a Class 2 dangerous felony. Prosecutors announced the 14-year sentence on Aug. 19. The case grew out of an Aug. 21, 2025, encounter near Seventh Street and Buckeye Road that authorities initially described only as a fatal shooting. Later accounts from prosecutors provided a fuller sequence: Medina was riding a scooter when he and a vehicle carrying Gonzales nearly collided. Medina then followed the vehicle to the next intersection and approached its passenger side as it waited at a red light. Gonzales lowered the window and fired one shot, prosecutors said.

The shooting happened shortly before 11 p.m. Police records place the initial call at about 10:45 p.m., with one department advisory listing the incident at about 10:47 p.m. Officers arriving in the area found Medina suffering from at least one gunshot wound. He was taken to a hospital but did not survive. The county attorney’s office later said the shot struck Medina in the chest. Authorities have not released a detailed account of what, if anything, was said during the confrontation at the traffic light. The public record reviewed for this report also does not identify the other occupants of the vehicle or describe whether any of them attempted to intervene before the shooting.

What happened immediately afterward became another important part of the prosecution’s account. The vehicle left the intersection after the shooting, and prosecutors said neither Gonzales nor the people with him called 911 or reported what had happened. The first police reports did not publicly explain the suspected motive or describe the near-collision that preceded the shooting. On Aug. 22, 2025, Phoenix police said homicide detectives had taken over the investigation and that additional details remained under review. Local reporting from that period similarly said the circumstances behind the shooting were still unclear. The fuller traffic-confrontation account emerged later, after investigators had identified a suspect and the criminal case moved forward.

Investigators ultimately used several forms of electronic and visual evidence to connect the vehicle and Gonzales to the killing. The county attorney’s office said surveillance video, automated license plate reader information and cellphone location data helped detectives identify the vehicle involved and then identify Gonzales as the shooter. Those investigative steps are significant because police did not announce an arrest at the scene. Instead, detectives had to reconstruct where the vehicle went after it left and determine who had been inside. By Sept. 3, 2025, Phoenix police announced that a juvenile suspect had been identified and referred to the Juvenile Court Center. Local news organizations reported that the teenager had been taken into custody.

Prosecutors said Gonzales made additional admissions during an interview with investigators. According to the county attorney’s office, he acknowledged obtaining the handgun illegally several days before Medina was killed and knew he was not legally permitted to possess it as a minor. Authorities also said Gonzales admitted selling the handgun after the shooting. His stated reason, according to prosecutors, was that he feared he might use the weapon again in another confrontation. The public materials reviewed for this report do not identify the person who allegedly supplied the gun, the person to whom it was later sold or whether anyone else faced charges connected with the firearm.

The guilty plea to manslaughter resolved the case without a trial on the homicide itself. KTAR reported that Gonzales had originally faced more serious allegations, including first- and second-degree murder, committing a drive-by shooting and possessing a firearm as a minor, before the case ended with the manslaughter plea. The county attorney’s sentencing announcement did not provide the date of the plea, describe negotiations that led to the agreement or give a detailed explanation of why manslaughter became the final conviction. It also did not provide a sentencing transcript or describe statements that Medina’s relatives or Gonzales’ family may have made to the court. What the office did confirm was the conviction, its classification as a dangerous felony and the 14-year prison term.

The official records contain a discrepancy concerning Gonzales’ age when Medina was killed. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said Gonzales was 15 at the time of the August 2025 shooting and listed his birth month and year as August 2009. Phoenix police, however, said in a Sept. 3, 2025, case update that the juvenile suspect was 16. Contemporary local reports of his arrest also described him as 16. Because the publicly available county attorney information provides only a birth month rather than a complete birth date, the precise age cannot be independently resolved from that document alone. The difference does not alter the central facts announced at sentencing: Gonzales was a minor when the shooting occurred, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was ordered to serve 14 years in prison.

County Attorney Rachel Mitchell described the case as the result of a brief roadside confrontation escalating into deadly violence. She said one decision had permanently affected both Medina’s family and Gonzales’ family and pointed to the prison term as evidence that gun violence would carry serious consequences. Her comments accompanied the sentencing announcement and represented the prosecution’s view of the case. The available materials do not include a public statement from Gonzales or his attorney responding to the sentence, nor do they provide a public statement from Medina’s relatives. They also do not establish that Medina approached the vehicle intending violence; prosecutors’ account says he approached the passenger side after the near-collision, followed by Gonzales firing the shot.

The sentence marks a sharp change from the uncertainty surrounding the case during its first days. Police initially knew that Medina had been shot near a busy Phoenix intersection and had died after being taken to a hospital. Within weeks, investigators had identified a juvenile suspect. By the following year, prosecutors publicly described the near-collision, the encounter at the red light, the evidence used to trace the vehicle and Gonzales’ statements about acquiring and later selling the handgun. The case ultimately ended not with a jury determining guilt but with Gonzales accepting criminal responsibility through a manslaughter plea and the court imposing a lengthy prison term.

Gonzales is now subject to the 14-year sentence announced by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. No additional charges against other occupants of the vehicle were identified in the public materials reviewed for this report, and authorities have not publicly released further details about Medina’s interaction with the occupants before the shot was fired. The sentencing therefore resolves Gonzales’ criminal case while leaving some details of the brief encounter known only through the investigation and court record.

Author note: Last updated September 28, 2026.