LOS ANGELES, CA – A Los Angeles County jury has convicted Kevin Eduardo Cataneo Salazar of first-degree murder in the 2023 ambush killing of Sheriff’s Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer, bringing the criminal case into a second phase that will determine whether Salazar was legally sane at the time of the shooting.
Jurors deliberated for approximately 2½ hours before returning the guilty verdict on Aug. 24, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Salazar, 32, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the Sept. 16, 2023, killing of Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer in Palmdale.
The jury also found true three special-circumstance allegations: murder of a peace officer, lying in wait and firing from a vehicle.
Jurors further found that Salazar personally used a .22-caliber revolver to commit the killing.
The verdict resolves the guilt phase of the trial.
It does not yet resolve the entire case because Salazar pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
The sanity phase was scheduled to begin Wednesday in Department 101 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center, with jurors tasked with deciding whether Salazar was legally sane when he killed Clinkunbroomer.
That determination has major consequences for what happens next.
According to the District Attorney’s Office, the sanity verdict will determine whether Salazar is ultimately committed to state prison or a state hospital.
Deputy was ambushed after leaving Palmdale Station
Clinkunbroomer was on duty on the evening of Sept. 16, 2023, when he left the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Palmdale Station.
Prosecutors said Salazar followed him in another vehicle.
Less than a block from the station, Salazar ambushed the deputy and fatally shot him before speeding away, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Clinkunbroomer was inside his patrol vehicle when he was shot.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said he was rushed to Antelope Valley Medical Center, where medical staff attempted to save him, but he died from his injuries.
He was 30 years old.
The killing triggered an intensive homicide investigation and a large-scale search across the Antelope Valley.
LASD investigators quickly began reviewing surveillance footage, interviewing witnesses and searching for a dark gray Toyota Corolla believed to be connected with the attack.
The department publicly circulated information about the vehicle as investigators sought help identifying the person responsible.
Salazar arrested two days later
Salazar was arrested Sept. 18, 2023, two days after Clinkunbroomer was killed.
LASD said investigators located him at a Palmdale residence following an extensive search.
Authorities recovered the vehicle they had identified as being of interest in the investigation, along with what the Sheriff’s Department described as a substantial quantity of firearms.
The arrest followed a standoff at the home.
After authorities surrounded the residence, Salazar eventually came outside and surrendered.
He was taken into custody and transported to the Palmdale Sheriff’s Station while homicide investigators continued gathering evidence.
The Sheriff’s Department credited information from the Palmdale community with helping investigators locate the suspect.
At the time, Sheriff Robert Luna said investigators would continue building the case even after the arrest, emphasizing that taking Salazar into custody represented only one stage of the prosecution.
Murder charge filed days after shooting
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office formally charged Salazar with murder on Sept. 20, 2023.
The case was assigned to the office’s Crimes Against Peace Officers prosecutors.
Nearly three years later, the same division secured the first-degree murder conviction.
District Attorney Nathan Hochman described the shooting as a “brutal and senseless murder” and said the verdict represented an important step toward accountability for Clinkunbroomer’s family and colleagues.
The prosecution was handled by Deputy District Attorneys Michael Blake and David Ayvazian of the Crimes Against Peace Officers Division.
The underlying homicide investigation was conducted by LASD.
Special circumstances make verdict especially serious
The jury did more than convict Salazar of first-degree murder.
Its findings that the killing involved a peace officer, lying in wait and firing from a vehicle make the verdict considerably more serious.
The peace-officer special circumstance reflects Clinkunbroomer’s status as an on-duty deputy.
The lying-in-wait finding reflects prosecutors’ allegation that the attack was planned as an ambush rather than developing from a spontaneous confrontation.
And the firing-from-a-vehicle allegation reflects the manner in which prosecutors said the shooting was carried out.
Jurors also accepted the prosecution’s allegation that Salazar personally used the .22-caliber revolver.
Those findings now remain intact as the trial moves into the sanity phase.
Sanity phase is separate from guilt
Salazar’s insanity plea means jurors must answer a different legal question from the one they resolved Monday.
The guilt phase determined whether Salazar committed the murder and whether prosecutors proved the charged allegations beyond a reasonable doubt.
The sanity phase concerns his mental condition at the time of the crime.
A defendant can be found factually responsible for a killing but still raise a legal insanity defense under California law.
The question is not simply whether a defendant had a diagnosed mental illness.
The jury must determine whether the legal standard for insanity was met when the crime occurred.
Salazar’s relatives had previously said he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
That family account may become relevant to the sanity proceedings, but a diagnosis alone does not determine the legal outcome.
The jury will evaluate evidence presented by both sides specifically on the insanity question.
The District Attorney’s Office said that phase will determine whether Salazar is sent to state prison or committed to a state hospital.
Clinkunbroomer was a third-generation deputy
Clinkunbroomer came from a family with deep ties to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
He was a third-generation deputy.
His father and grandfather also served with LASD.
At the time of his death, Clinkunbroomer had recently become engaged.
His killing generated widespread mourning across the department and the Antelope Valley.
The department continued marking his memory after his death.
A later LASD transparency report documented donations made to Palmdale Station on the first anniversary of his end of watch, including food, drinks, flowers and a memorial plaque honoring him.
An independent Antelope Valley monitoring report also described the murder as a particularly difficult event for both LASD personnel and the broader community.
Killing occurred just outside the station
The proximity of the shooting to Palmdale Station became one of the most disturbing elements of the case.
Clinkunbroomer had only recently left the station when he was attacked.
The District Attorney’s Office said Salazar followed the deputy and shot him less than a block away.
LASD records from the period similarly describe Clinkunbroomer as being murdered while on patrol and stopped at an intersection just outside Palmdale Station.
There was no reported confrontation immediately before the shooting.
The jury’s lying-in-wait finding is consistent with prosecutors’ characterization of the killing as an ambush.
Family also pursued civil litigation
Clinkunbroomer’s family separately filed a civil lawsuit against Los Angeles County and county officials in late 2023.
That lawsuit is distinct from the criminal prosecution against Salazar.
The family alleged that staffing policies and extensive mandatory overtime contributed to unsafe working conditions for deputies.
Those civil allegations were not part of the murder verdict and did not determine Salazar’s criminal responsibility.
The criminal case instead focused on whether Salazar intentionally killed Clinkunbroomer and whether the special circumstances alleged by prosecutors were proven.
On Monday, the jury concluded that they were.
More than two years between charge and verdict
Salazar’s arrest came just two days after the killing, but reaching a jury verdict took almost three years.
Capital-level homicide cases and cases involving an insanity defense can involve extensive pretrial litigation, psychiatric evaluations, evidentiary hearings and jury selection.
The court must also separate the guilt and sanity questions when a defendant enters both a conventional not-guilty plea and a not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity plea.
That is why the case did not end when jurors returned the murder verdict.
The same jury now has another phase to complete.
Prosecutors say verdict is a step toward accountability
Following the conviction, Hochman emphasized that the case remains unfinished.
“While the trial now moves to the sanity phase, this verdict is an important step toward justice and accountability,” he said.
The District Attorney also thanked prosecutors assigned to the case and acknowledged the impact of the murder on Clinkunbroomer’s relatives, LASD colleagues and the Palmdale community.
The next phase will focus on Salazar’s mental state rather than whether he carried out the killing.
The first jury question has already been answered: Salazar was found guilty of first-degree murder.
What happens next
The sanity phase was scheduled to begin Wednesday at the Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles.
Jurors will hear additional evidence before determining whether Salazar was legally sane at the time he killed Clinkunbroomer.
If the jury rejects the insanity defense, the case will proceed on the basis of the murder conviction and special-circumstance findings.
If jurors find Salazar was legally insane, the consequences would shift toward commitment in a state hospital rather than ordinary state-prison placement, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
No final sentencing outcome has therefore been reached yet.
For Clinkunbroomer’s family and colleagues, Monday’s verdict resolves one major part of a case that began with the deputy’s ambush killing outside his own station nearly three years earlier.
Kevin Eduardo Cataneo Salazar has now been convicted of first-degree murder, with special circumstances for killing a peace officer, lying in wait and firing from a vehicle.
The jury’s work, however, is not finished.
