Man pleads guilty to manslaughter, admits to killing three during 2016 drug buy rip-off in South Salt Lake

A 21-year-old man accused of shooting and killing two men and a teenage boy inside an SUV in South Salt Lake nearly two years ago has pleaded guilty to lesser charges.

Gerald R. Grant pleaded guilty Monday to three counts of second-degree felony manslaughter in the Feb. 18, 2016, deaths of 20-year-old Angel Lopez-Salinas, his 19-year-old brother, Lauro Raul Lopez-Salinas, and 17-year-old Armando Cuenca-Curiel.

He was initially charged with three counts of first-degree felony murder for the deaths, but the charges were reduced as part of a plea deal. Aggravated robbery and obstructing justice charges were also dismissed.

Grant had claimed that he fired his gun in self-defense. Plea documents state the defendant “reasonably but incorrectly believed that his conduct was legally justified or excused by self-defense.”

The document says Grant has agreed to be sentenced to prison for up to 30 years during a hearing set for March 8 before 3rd District Judge Ann Boyden.

During a 2016 preliminary hearing, witnesses testified that Grant and the victims were planning to rob each other during a meet-up to sell marijuana.

In the end, Grant left the SUV with a gunshot wound in the leg. Cuenca-Curiel was shot in the side, and died in the SUV parked in the road at 325 E. Park Creeke Lane (3060 South). The two brothers were each shot in the head, and died later at a local hospital.

Defense attorney Wojciech Nitecki claimed during closing arguments at the preliminary hearing that Grant shot the three men in self-defense and had fired his gun after being shot in the leg.

Nitecki said there was no evidence that Grant robbed the men, noting that marijuana and money were still in the SUV when police arrived.

But prosecutor Thaddeus May had argued that there were several pieces of evidence that showed the shooting was not an act of self-defense. That included a lack of injury to Grant’s face or injuries to the shooting victims’ hands — which would have shown there was an assault, as Grant had later told his friends — along with evidence that Grant brought a gun to the drug buy and did not bring enough money to pay for the drugs that were promised.

A second man, Mahad Abdirashid Omar, is charged as an accomplice in the three deaths — accused of setting up the drug buy and helping Grant leave the area after the shooting. The 23-year-old man is charged with three counts of murder and one count of aggravated robbery. His case is pending.