This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The stakes are high for 18-year-old Meagan Dakota Grunwald.
If, at the end of a two-week trial set to begin Tuesday , the teenager is convicted of crimes that include aggravated murder, she could be sentenced to prison for up to life.
Prosecutors say that last year — when she was 17 years old — Grunwald willingly drove the getaway car as her boyfriend, 27-year-old Jose Angel Garcia-Jauregui, shot his gun out a back window, killing Utah County sheriff's Sgt. Cory Wride and injuring Deputy Greg Sherwood.
The teenager is not accused of pulling the trigger that day in January 2014, but prosecutors say the girl was an "active participant" in the two-county crime spree and high-speed chase.
"She's young, but she is absolutely as culpable under Utah law as [Garcia-Jauregui] is," Chief Deputy Utah County Attorney Tim Taylor said after charges were filed against the girl more than a year ago.
Grunwald, who is charged as an accomplice to the crimes, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree felony aggravated murder in Wride's death.
She is also charged with 11 other crimes: two counts of first-degree felony attempted aggravated murder, first-degree felony aggravated robbery, three counts of felony discharge of a firearm, two charges of criminal mischief, and one count each of causing an accident involving property damage, failure to stop at command of police and possession or use of a controlled substance.
If a jury convicts Grunwald of any of the first-degree felony charges she is facing, she could be sentenced to spend up to life in the Utah State Prison. The defendant is not eligible for the death penalty because she was a minor when the alleged crimes took place.
Jury selection is expected to begin Tuesday in 4th District Court, and the trial will take place over two weeks in Judge Darold McDade's Provo courtroom.
Accusations • Events began in Utah County at about 1 p.m. on Jan. 30, 2014, when Wride stopped his patrol car on State Road 73 about 5 miles west of Lehi to check on a pulled-over Toyota Tundra pickup truck allegedly driven by Grunwald.
Wride was sitting in his patrol car checking information given to him by Grunwald and Garcia-Jauregui when police believe Garcia-Jauregui opened the back sliding window of the truck and shot and killed the officer. The girl then sped away from the scene, according to court documents, which rely on dash cam footage from Wride's vehicle.
Police believe Grunwald was still driving the truck when she and Garcia-Jauregui encountered Sherwood in Santaquin.
As Sherwood was following the truck in his patrol vehicle, prosecutors allege that the teen girl braked suddenly — closing distance between her truck and Sherwood's vehicle — and Garcia-Jauregui once again fired from the back window of the truck. Sherwood was struck once in the head.
The two continued south on Interstate 15. They commandeered another vehicle at gunpoint, but that vehicle was disabled by tire spikes south of Nephi, where Juab County sheriff's deputies arrested them after shooting and fatally wounding Garcia-Jauregui, according to court documents.
According to charging documents, Grunwald and Garcia-Jauregui had been living together for several months at the teen's mother's home in Draper, and the couple planned to wed when Grunwald turned 18 in August.
Garcia-Jauregui was a prison parolee, who was released after serving five years of a one-to-15-year sentence for 2008 convictions for attempted murder and aggravated assault.
Her defense • Grunwald will claim at trial that she was forced by her boyfriend to be the driver during the crime spree, according to court documents.
"[It's] our primary defense in this case," defense attorney Dean Zabriskie said in November. "That whatever happened was the end result of her being threatened, along with everybody else on the road that day … and having a gun pointed at her during almost the entire episode. She had little choice."
But Deputy Utah County Attorney Sam Pead has said Grunwald's willing participation was motivated "by love and loyalty."
Zabriskie said after a preliminary hearing last April that his client will likely testify in her own defense at trial. He said no one has heard her side of the story — not even the police — about how she went from high school senior to murder suspect.
"She was scared to death," he said.
Evidence • Prosecutors have subpoenaed over 100 potential witnesses to testify at the trial, according to court documents. Along with law enforcement officials who took part in the two-county chase — including Sherwood and Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Jeff Blankenangel who was shot at but not struck — motorists who witnessed the freeway gun-play are also expected to testify. In addition, family members of both Grunwald and Garcia-Jauregui could be called.
As for the defense, they indicated in court papers that they may call several of Grunwald's friends, as well as co-workers who observed the couple's relationship develop while they both worked in a meat packaging plant in Draper, where they met.
Jurors will also be able to watch the chase and shooting unfold in front of them, as most of the Jan. 30 encounter was captured on six officers' dashboard cameras, including Wride's and Sherwood's.
In the months before trial, attorneys have been arguing about what evidence will be allowed at trial.
Grunwald's attorneys had argued that jurors should not see the result of a blood draw taken from the defendant after the crime spree because a Utah County sheriff's deputy who wrote a search warrant affidavit seeking the blood draw exaggerated Grunwald's alleged erratic driving during the high-speed chase.
But Judge McDade ruled that the results of the blood draw — which will show that the teen's blood tested positive for methamphetamine, according to preliminary hearing evidence — will be allowed.
The judge also will allow prosecutors to show notes, drawings, Facebook messages and birthday cards exchanged between Grunwald and Garcia-Jauregui to demonstrate the mutual affection between the couple.
Prosecutors also will be allowed to present evidence about an encounter earlier that month when Garcia-Jauregui allegedly threatened Grunwald's father with a gun during a confrontation at their Draper home, the judge has ruled.
Twitter: @jm_miller