Walla Walla County Superior Court Judge Brandon L. Johnson reads his verdict in the murder trial of Ecarnacion Salas on Thursday, April 20.

Ecarnacion Salas, an inmate at the Washington State Penitentiary, was convicted Thursday, April 20, of first-degree aggravated murder of former death-row inmate Dayva Cross by Walla Walla County Superior Court Judge Brandon L. Johnson.

While sentencing was not addressed at the time, according to Washington law 10.95.030 of the RCW, aggravated first-degree murder comes with an automatic life sentence.

Salas, whose arms and legs were chained during the verdict, said little after Johnson’s decision was read except to request a new trial. Johnson declined the request.

Johnson called the evidence against Salas “overwhelming” and spoke in detail about each element he ruled on in his decision.

Salas is accused of disemboweling Cross in a Washington State Penitentiary shower on March 13, 2022.

The conviction comes as no surprise because Salas defended himself and declined a court-appointed lawyer and because of the amount of evidence against him.

Salas called no defense witnesses and asked only a few questions during his cross-examination of the prosecution’s witnesses during his two-day bench trial.

The evidence against Salas included the victim’s blood found on his clothes, his own blood likely found on the murder weapon, video of him entering the victim’s shower stall, and video of him exiting three minutes later.

No one else entered the stall during that time.

A letter in which he confesses to the crime was read in court, and a recorded phone call in which he talks about committing the crime was played.

Johnson said the only evidence that could have made it even clearer would be video of the actual act of murder.

He said he was grateful such video did not exist, because he would have “been obligated to watch it” if it did.

Several gruesome photos of the victim’s body were shown in court.

Salas already is serving a 20-year sentence for a 2019 murder conviction in the death of Jesus Cardenas Lopez in Snohomish County in 2014.

Cross, meanwhile, was serving a life sentence after his death sentence was commuted after the Washington State Supreme Court in 2018 deemed the state’s use of the death penalty unconstitutional.

Salas’ trial — and its lead up — was full of irregularities.

Salas defended himself and opted for a bench trial. Johnson assigned Walla Walla criminal defense attorney Rachal Cortez to sit in on the trial and serve as “standby counsel.”

On the first day of the trial, Cortez, who had been assigned just days earlier, interrupted opening statements to ask that Salas be declared incompetent and that the trial be stopped.

Johnson declined to stop the trial. And after reading his verdict Thursday, he readdressed the issue of Salas’ competency.

He said he found that “the defendant has capacity (and) made knowing, intelligent and voluntary waivers of counsel and a jury trial.”

While Johnson orally delivered his decision in open court, he said a written version including “findings of fact” still must be produced and filed.