{"id":58573,"date":"2026-10-17T14:14:32","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T19:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=58573"},"modified":"2026-10-16T05:43:49","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T10:43:49","slug":"grand-forks-jury-finds-vincent-villarreal-guilty-of-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/grand-forks-jury-finds-vincent-villarreal-guilty-of-murder\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand Forks Jury Finds Vincent Villarreal Guilty of Murder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grand Forks Jury Finds Vincent Villarreal Guilty of Murder<\/h2>\n

GRAND FORKS, ND (trfnews.i234.me<\/a>)<\/strong> \u2013 A Grand Forks jury has found Vincent Chase Villarreal guilty of murdering his father in December 2020.<\/p>\n

Villarreal, 34, of East Grand Forks, Minnesota, was convicted Thursday, October 15, 2026.<\/p>\n

The verdict followed a murder trial involving the shooting death of his father, Jeffrey Shulzitski, 55.<\/p>\n

Shulzitski was found dead inside a Grand Forks hotel room nearly six years ago.<\/p>\n

Villarreal faces a possible life sentence. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for January 25, 2027.<\/p>\n

Fatal Shooting at Grand Forks Hotel<\/h2>\n

The killing happened December 4, 2020, at the former Budget Inn Express in Grand Forks.<\/p>\n

The hotel was located at 3400 Gateway Drive.<\/p>\n

Authorities discovered Shulzitski’s body the following day inside room 189.<\/p>\n

Investigators determined that Shulzitski died from a gunshot wound.<\/p>\n

Police identified Villarreal as a suspect after reviewing witness statements and evidence connected to the shooting.<\/p>\n

He was arrested weeks later at a trailer park in Crookston, Minnesota.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors Presented Evidence During Trial<\/h2>\n

Villarreal’s trial began October 6, 2026, in Grand Forks.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors called 29 witnesses while presenting their case against Villarreal.<\/p>\n

Investigators testified about evidence collected from the hotel and Villarreal’s vehicle.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said a bullet recovered from the murder scene matched a bullet found inside Villarreal’s car.<\/p>\n

They also presented evidence concerning Villarreal’s movements before and after the shooting.<\/p>\n

Witness testimony and hotel surveillance footage were important parts of the prosecution’s case.<\/p>\n

The defense challenged the reliability of some witnesses and their memories of events from nearly six years earlier.<\/p>\n

Defense attorneys rested their case Wednesday without calling any witnesses.<\/p>\n

Jury Returns Guilty Verdict<\/h2>\n

Jurors began deliberating Wednesday afternoon, October 14.<\/p>\n

They deliberated for approximately two and a half hours before ending their first day.<\/p>\n

Deliberations resumed Thursday, when the jury returned its guilty verdict.<\/p>\n

Villarreal was tried on a Class AA felony murder charge involving extreme indifference to human life.<\/p>\n

Under North Dakota law, Class AA felony murder carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.<\/p>\n

The verdict resolves the question of Villarreal’s guilt, while sentencing remains pending.<\/p>\n

Additional information about North Dakota’s criminal laws is available through the North Dakota Legislative Branch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sentencing Scheduled for January 2027<\/h2>\n

Villarreal remains in custody following the conviction.<\/p>\n

His sentencing hearing is scheduled for January 25, 2027.<\/p>\n

The court will determine his sentence based on the applicable law and circumstances of the case.<\/p>\n

Additional information about court proceedings is available through the North Dakota Court System<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The conviction comes nearly six years after Jeffrey Shulzitski was found dead in the Grand Forks hotel.<\/p>\n

The case has now moved from trial proceedings to the sentencing stage.<\/p>\n

TRF News will continue following developments as the sentencing date approaches.<\/p>\n

I’m Adrian Cole reporting for TRF News<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 TRF News. All rights reserved.<\/small><\/p>\n

\"Grand<\/a>
Grand Forks Jury Finds Vincent Villarreal Guilty of Murder<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Grand Forks jury convicted Vincent Villarreal of murdering his father at a hotel in 2020. The East Grand Forks man faces possible life in prison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"","timeOption":"","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":""},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[26930,26928,26926,6470,820,457,6380,26925,26924,2309,1077,20207,6049,1505,26929,786,26429,3983,26923,20206,26927,26931],"class_list":["post-58573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-2020-hotel-shooting","tag-budget-inn-express-murder","tag-east-grand-forks-murder-case","tag-finds","tag-forks","tag-grand","tag-grand-forks-county-court","tag-grand-forks-jury","tag-grand-forks-murder-verdict","tag-guilty","tag-herald","tag-jeffrey-shulzitski","tag-jury","tag-murder","tag-north-dakota-murder-trial","tag-trf-news","tag-villarreal","tag-vincent","tag-vincent-chase-villarreal","tag-vincent-villarreal","tag-vincent-villarreal-guilty","tag-vincent-villarreal-sentencing","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58573"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58617,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58573\/revisions\/58617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}