They walked out when photographs of 16-year-old Kenyatta Winston's body were projected on a screen in the courtroom, shifted uncomfortably as defense lawyers detailed the kinds of maggots found swarming the teenager, left for dead in a shallow ditch behind a vacant Sugar House lot.
But on Friday, when a jury convicted Frank Paul Reyos of Winston's murder, the teen's family embraced and said they could finally have closure.
"There are really no winners here today," said the victim's father, Norvert Winston. "We lost our son and we're never going to have him back. But after today, I feel like we can finally move on from all this. And if there was any purpose our son had, it was to remind us all to be more mindful of our actions."
Reyos, who was found guilty of first-degree felony aggravated murder and second-degree felony possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person in the 2012 slaying, will be sentenced Jan. 12 to what could be up to life in prison.
As the verdict was read Friday — after four days of testimony and two hours and 40 minutes of deliberations — the Reyos family held each other and cried.
But on his way out of the courtroom, in handcuffs, Reyos, 32, turned to them and said one word: "Smile."
The defendant's sister, Jessica Reyos, who testified at the trial about lending out her car, which police believe was used in the murder, shook her head and told her father "the truth will come out."
The father, Kenneth Reyos Sr., said they will likely appeal his case.
In the trial, prosecutors did not present any DNA evidence, footprints, phone records or photographs to place Reyos at the scene of Winston's murder.
Instead, they relied heavily on witness testimony — given both in and out of the courtroom.
Their key witness, Natasha Alvarado, testified that she was there on Aug. 26, 2012, the night Reyos shot Winston.
She detailed the events surrounding the teen's murder: how the night before, she, Reyos and Winston went to intervene at a Rose Park party, where Winston's then-girlfriend was being harassed by gang members from the east side of Salt Lake City.
When bullets began to fly, Alvarado said, Winston took off running, leaving Reyos behind to be beaten and shot at.
Defense attorney Michael Misner argued Friday in his final appeal to the jury that the state did not do enough to prove his client's guilt and did not provide enough concrete evidence to convict his client of murder beyond a reasonable doubt.
"There is not one shred of physical evidence connecting Frank Reyos to the murder of Kenyatta Winston," Misner told the jury. "Watch these videos, and you decide what they say. Don't listen to me, don't listen to detectives, don't listen to crack addicts."
Misner said Alvarado was unreliable at best, that her story didn't make sense and that she was the mastermind behind the entire situation — possibly even the real killer.
"Natasha Alvarado had at least something to do with this murder, if not being the actual murderer," Misner said. "Her actions do not support this idea that the reason she's lied and the reason she's gone through this whole charade is because she's deathly afraid of Frank Reyos."
Prosecutors countered that Alvarado was previously unreliable because she was afraid of what might happen to her if she came clean about Reyos and his involvement in Winston's death.
"Everybody lied. Everybody here lied. Why did they lie? The most fundamental motive for any organism's actions is self-preservation," prosecutor Fred Burmester told jurors. "The defendant frightened them. ... [Natasha Alvarado] had just seen the defendant execute a 16-year-old boy for having the temerity to run away during a fight. Of course she lied. Because she was afraid of what might happen to her if she didn't."
They pointed to a surveillance video from the Zions Motel, where the victim had been staying, and testimony from police, witness interviews and the autopsy as corroboration for Alvarado's story.
"The murder itself is corroborated," Burmester said. "Frank Reyos put the gun to [Winston's] head and pulled the trigger and let him drop into that ditch. Then he turned around and — without any remorse — left that boy to the flies."
The jury returned its verdict at 3:45 p.m.
On Wednesday, medical examiner Edward Leis testified that Winston died from a "contact gunshot wound," meaning the shooter had the gun pressed to the victim's head. The bullet passed through the back of his skull and lodged in his brain.
An autopsy revealed he was dead for some time when his body was discovered on Aug. 29, 2012, by a construction crew in the area near 1120 E. Crandall Ave. (about 2900 South). Traces of marijuana and methamphetamine were found in the teen's system.
Alvarado was initially arrested and charged with second-degree felony obstructing justice in connection with the case for allegedly cleaning a motel room where she, Winston and others had been staying and doing drugs. The charges have since been dropped without prejudice, meaning prosecutors could refile.
mlang@sltrib.com
Twitter: @Marissa_Jae
