A man accused in a south side shooting that left one man dead was sentenced to five years in prison Monday.
Pima County Superior Court Judge Howard Fell sentenced Oscar Contreras to prison for the 2013 killing of Azar Rust.
Rust, 38, was shot and killed following a confrontation near South Sixth Avenue and East 29th Street in February 2013.
Contreras remained at large until November 2013, when he was stopped attempting to flee from law enforcement.
He pleaded guilty to negligent homicide and fleeing from law enforcement.
At the sentencing hearing, several people who know the defendant from his work with Tucson Clean and Beautiful spoke on his behalf.
Defense attorney Bobbi Berry described her client as polite and thoughtful, someone “who would never hurt anyone on purpose,” but who got involved in a bad situation, the result of the rough environment he grew up in.
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Deputy Pima County Attorney Bruce Chalk disputed Contreras’s claims the victim may have been armed.
“None of (the witnesses) say the victim had a gun,” Chalk said.
He noted the case presented challenges because witnesses made inconsistent statements and one may have been smoking spice, a hallucinogenic drug, prior to the incident.
In addition to prison, Contreras was sentenced to three years probation.
