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Was Meagan Dakota Grunwald a willing accomplice to murder or was she forced to act as a getaway driver as her boyfriend shot and killed one police officer and wounded another?
The teenager's motives are at the heart of her criminal case, and the topic of a flurry of motions filed by attorneys in the case since December.
Grunwald is charged as an adult in 4th District Court with first-degree felony aggravated murder and 11 other charges related to Sgt. Cory Wride's death in Lehi and the wounding of Utah County sheriff's Deputy Greg Sherwood in Santaquin.
Defense attorney Dean Zabriskie has said that Grunwald's defense at trial will be that she was forced by her boyfriend, 27-year-old Jose Angel Garcia-Jauregui, to participate in the Jan. 30, 2014, crime spree, which included acting as a getaway driver.
But prosecutors, who claim then-17-year-old Grunwald acted willingly, are seeking to have evidence admitted at trial about the "deep mutual affection" between her and Garcia-Jauregui, who died a day after the crime spree after being shot and wounded by police in Nephi.
Prosecutors want notes, cards and drawings that were exchanged between the couple admitted at trial. They also seek to have several of Grunwald's friends testify about the relationship, including that the couple had been dating for about six months before the shooting, that Garcia-Jauregui had given Grunwald a promise ring and that the couple planned to move to Mexico.
Prosecutors also have asked that statements Garcia-Jauregui made by cell phone to his uncle after Wride was killed and the couple was fleeing — "I'm with my girlfriend's people. They are protecting me" — be allowed at trial.
But Grunwald's defense team argued that the statements are vague, and said Garcia-Jauregui's brother told investigators, "Angel claims Meagan is not his girlfriend," and, "Angel would go through women very quickly," according to court records.
In addition, Grunwald's defense team argued in court papers that after Grunwald was arrested, the teen immediately told law enforcement that "she had been kidnapped" and that Garcia-Jauregui told her "if she wanted to leave, he would kill her and her family."
A police officer later overheard her tell hospital personnel, "I was just in the wrong place, with the wrong person, at the wrong time," according to court records.
Grunwald, now 18, will be in court Feb. 17, when attorneys are expected to argue over what evidence will be allowed at her trial, which is scheduled to begin April 28.
Her defense team is also asking a judge to ban a jury from seeing the results of a blood draw taken from her after the crime spree.
According to a motion to suppress filed Tuesday, the defense accuses a Utah County sheriff's deputy who wrote a search warrant affidavit seeking a blood draw of "exaggerating" Grunwald's alleged erratic driving during the high-speed chase.
"[The deputy] demonstrated a 'reckless disregard' for the truth by exaggerating the speed at which the defendant drove," attorney Rhome Zabriskie wrote, "and, also, by stating that the defendant caused several accidents, when (in actuality) no accidents were caused by the defendant's driving."
Zabriskie argues in the motion that because the deputy showed a "reckless disregard for the truth," the blood draw was illegal. The teen's blood tested positive for methamphetamine on the day of the Jan. 30 shooting, according to evidence presented at her preliminary hearing.
Grunwald, who is being held in at the Salt Lake County Jail on $1 million cash-only bail, faces up to life in prison if convicted as charged.
Twitter: @jm_miller