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A 19-year-old Florida man has been charged with shooting and killing three people inside an SUV last month.

Gerald R. Grant was charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with three counts of aggravated murder, which are first-degree felonies, and one count of obstructing justice, a second-degree felony.

Prosecutors claim Grant killed Angel Lopez-Salinas, 20; his 19-year-old brother, Lauro Lopez-Salinas; and 17-year-old Armando Cuenca-Curiel.

Grant reportedly told a friend that he killed the three victims in self-defense, according to recently unsealed search warrant affidavits.

On Feb. 18, Grant had asked someone about getting marijuana, so that person arranged a meeting with a contact at 283 E. 3300 South, according to the charges filed Tuesday. There, Grant got into the contact's SUV, the charges add.

At about 8 p.m., police were called to 325 E. Park Creek Lane on a disturbance. When they arrived, they found a Ford SUV in the middle of the road and the three victims: Angel Lopez-Salinas, who was in the driver's seat; Lauro Lopez-Salinas, who was in the rear passenger seat; and Cuenca-Curiel, who was in the back cargo area.

The two Lopez-Salinas brothers had both been shot in the head, while Cuenca-Curiel had a gunshot wound to his side, according to the affidavit. Cuenca-Curiel died at the scene, and the two brothers later died at a local hospital.

Witnesses told police that they saw a young man limp from the SUV, fall down in a snowbank and then lean against a car while speaking on his phone, the affidavit states. He was picked up several minutes later by someone in a white vehicle.

Later, on the night of the shooting, Grant — who was carrying a Florida driver license — went to a local hospital for treatment of a bullet wound to his leg, according to the search warrant affidavit.

The same man who set up the marijuana buy later told police that Grant called him for help after the shooting and asked to be picked up.

"As they fled the scene, Grant told [his friend] that the males tried to rob him and started to beat on him inside the vehicle," a South Salt Lake police sergeant wrote in the search warrant affidavit. "They also shot him in the leg. Grant told [the man] he pulled his gun in self-defense and shot the males trying to rob him."

The friend also told police that Grant said he threw his gun near a tree where he fell after he exited the SUV, according to charging documents. Police later found a Ruger 9mm handgun by a tree in a yard on Park Creeke Lane.

Responding officers also spotted a black semiautomatic handgun sticking out from under the front passenger seat with the slide in a locked position. They also saw bullet holes and blood in the vehicle, along with marijuana.

The search warrant affidavit sought custody of these items, along with multiple cellphones found in the car, brass knuckles on the driver's seat and other evidence.

Grant is being held at the Salt Lake County jail lieu of $3 million cash-bail.

An initial court appearance is set for Friday morning at Salt Lake City's Matheson Courthouse.

Grant's Utah criminal record is limited to a charge last year of possessing a controlled substance with intent to distribute, for which he took a plea in abeyance on Feb. 5. A judge ordered that the case against Grant would be dropped after 24 months if he complied with all of the conditions of his probation, according to court documents.

In October, a Salt Lake City officer stopped a vehicle Grant was driving, with two passengers, and smelled a strong odor of marijuana, according to the charges. The officer allegedly found four guns, 500 rounds of ammunition and 83 grams of marijuana in the vehicle.

At the time the 2015 charges were filed, authorities identified Grant as homeless.

Court records show that Angel Lopez-Salinas has a 2014 conviction for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, for which he was on probation at the time of his death.

He pleaded guilty in South Salt Lake's justice court to the class B misdemeanor in June 2014 and a count of possessing drug paraphernalia was dismissed. He was placed on probation for 12 months, but his probation was twice reinstated for failure to make monthly payments on his $680 fine, according to court records.

In 2013, Lopez-Salinas entered a guilty plea in abeyance to class B misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance. In exchange for his plea, four other misdemeanors were dismissed, including a count of carrying a concealed dangerous weapon.

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