A 20-year-old man has been charged with murder after prosecutors say he shot and killed another man at a Halloween party last month.
Jhared Ivan Rodriguez has also been charged in 3rd District Court with discharge of a firearm with injury, a second-degree felony; and six counts of discharge of a firearm, a third-degree felony.
The shooting stemmed from an apparent argument at the Halloween party on Oct. 28, at a home near 1400 W. Parkway Ave in West Valley City, according to charging documents.
The party’s host told West Valley City police that 15-30 people showed up uninvited, including 19-year-old Jesus Puerta Tovar and several of his friends, at what was “meant to be a small party,” where Rodriguez was one of the guests.
The host told Tovar and his uninvited friends to leave, the host told investigators, because Rodriguez had “a beef” with one of Tovar’s friends. But Tovar wanted to stay, witnesses told police, and a fight broke out between Tovar and Tovar’s friends and Rodriguez and Rodriguez’s friends.
The host helped break up the fight, he told police, pushing Rodriguez back and warning him “not to do anything he would regret,” charging documents state. Tovar and his friends left the party.
But they returned when they “realized that they’d left the car keys on the lawn,” according to a probable cause statement. When they tried to retrieve the keys, the fighting resumed.
Witnesses said Tovar yelled that Rodriguez was just mad because another member of Tovar’s group had a past sexual relationship with Rodriguez’s girlfriend, and Rodriguez pulled out a gun.
Tovar and his friends ran, according to witnesses, and Rodriguez fired several shots at them. An autopsy showed that Tovar was struck twice from behind — once in the back and once in the arm. His friends took him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Police recovered eight shell casings at the home where the shooting took place.
Rodriguez is being held without bail in the Salt Lake County jail. His first court appearance is scheduled for Thursday.
