Vincent Villarreal Found Guilty Of Murdering His Father

(KNOX) –A jury has found 34-year-old Vincent Villarreal guilty of murdering his father after seven hours of deliberation.

Villarreal had been facing Class AA felony murder charges, where he has now been found guilty of shooting his father, Jeffrey Shulzitski at the then Budget Inn Express at 3400 Gateway Drive in Grand Forks six years ago.

Villarreal was arrested weeks later at a trailer park in Crookston, when Grand Forks Police were searching for him. After that arrest, he was convicted on drug possession charges and was sentenced in 2022 to 19 months in prison with 488 days of credit. He was also convicted on assault charges in two more cases, as he spent another 181 days in jail. The trial was delayed three times this year before it started earlier this month.

The defense opened and rested its case on Wednesday without calling any witnesses. They say several of the 29 witnesses the prosecution called had issues with recalling details of a six year old incident because of their history of drug use.

He will be sentenced on January 25th, 2027 at 10:30 am and he will be held without bond at the Grand Forks County Correctional Facility until his sentencing.