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Provo • Dozens of people were impacted on the cold January day last year as then-17-year-old Meagan Dakota Grunwald sped through two counties while her boyfriend shot at police officers from the back window.
Some of those affected were law enforcement officers desperately trying to stop the pickup truck, whose passengers were suspected of shooting and killing Utah County sheriff's Sgt. Cory Wride earlier that day. Others were unsuspecting motorists who suddenly found themselves in the middle of the high-speed chase and shootout that unfolded south of Nephi.
On Friday, nine witnesses took the stand and told what they saw on Jan. 30, 2014 — each of their testimonies a piece of a larger picture of chaos and danger that lasted for hours on Utah roadways.
It was the third day of testimony in the trial for now-18-year-old Meagan Grunwald, who is charged as an accomplice to the murder of Wride, the attempted murder of wounded Deputy Greg Sherwood and a number of other crimes.
The witnesses focused on the end of the two-county crime spree — after Grunwald and her boyfriend, 27-year-old Jose Angel Garcia-Jauregui, allegedly carjacked a gold Highlander in Juab County after their truck's tires were spiked.
Motorist Edward Felsing said he was driving north on Interstate 15 when the Highlander, driven by Garcia-Jauregui, crossed the median and began heading into oncoming traffic.
"It happened so quickly," Felsing testified. "I'm slowing down and I'm trying to avoid it."
But Felsing said he was side-swiped by the vehicle. He stopped his car and began looking for insurance information before an armed police officer yelled at him to leave the area.
It was then, Felsing said, that he noticed a man running towards his car, and pull at his passenger door.
"I accelerated faster," he said. "The man fell and then a gun discharged."
Felsing said he sped from the area and didn't stop until he got to Nephi. As Felsing drove away, another motorist — James Clarken — had stopped on the freeway just as a shootout between Garcia-Jauregui and police started.
"I was a little bit stupefied when I saw the gentlemen in the median," Clarken testified. "They didn't appear to be law enforcement. I had no idea what I had just driven into."
As Clarken looked at the armed men standing on the highway, he also noticed a girl — Grunwald — standing on the highway near his vehicle. It was then that he grabbed his own gun and told his wife and 10-year-old son in the backseat to "Get down!"
"She was kind of pacing around, frantically holding her hands up," Clarken said of Grunwald. "When shots were fired, she became very distraught. She began to yell and scream, 'You f—-ing assholes! You didn't have to shoot him! You f—-ing shot him! Oh my God!' "
Clarken described the teenager as "hysterical," "angry," and "very upset with law enforcement for shooting this person."
The 18-year-old's actions, demeanor and statements that day have been a critical point during trial, as prosecutors paint her as a willing accomplice who would do anything to be with her boyfriend, while defense attorneys argue that she, herself, was a victim who was forced to drive the getaway car after Garcia-Jauregui threatened to kill her.
Also Friday, jurors heard Grunwald's voice for the first time, when dash cam footage from an arresting officer's car was played in court.
"Why baby?" the teen whispers as her boyfriend is taken to an ambulance on a stretcher. "Honey, why?"
Utah Highway Patrol Trooper John Sheets testified Friday that Grunwald complained of her handcuffs being too tight and that her pants were falling down. The trooper noted that it appeared the girl can only be heard sobbing on the video when he is near her.
Sheets said Friday that as the girl was being placed in his patrol car, she made claims that she was threatened by Garcia-Jauregui.
"I tried to get him to stop," Grunwald whimpers on the video as Sheets drives away from the shooting scene.
Grunwald has been charged as an adult in 4th District Court with first-degree felony aggravated murder for allegedly being an accomplice to Wride's slaying. She is also facing 11 other crimes: two counts of first-degree felony attempted aggravated murder, first-degree felony aggravated robbery, three counts of felony discharge of a firearm, two charges of criminal mischief, and one count each of causing an accident involving property damage, failure to stop at command of police and possession or use of a controlled substance.
If the jury convicts Grunwald of any of the first-degree felonies, she could be sentenced to up to life in the Utah State Prison. The defendant is not eligible for the death penalty because she was a minor when the alleged crimes occurred.
Events began in Utah County at about 1 p.m. that day, when Wride stopped his patrol car on State Road 73 about five miles west of Lehi to check on a pulled-over Toyota Tundra allegedly driven by Grunwald.
Defense attorney Dean Zabriskie said his client had been preparing to move to St. George that day with her mother and had gone for a drive with Garcia-Jauregui.
The girl pulled over the truck because she was in tears after the couple had gotten into a heated argument, Zabriskie said.
That's when Wride pulled up behind them and he asked for identifying information.
Garcia-Jauregui knew that an arrest warrant had been issued for him the day before, according to Zabriskie, and gave the officer a false name.
While Wride was in his vehicle, checking the information he had just received from the pair, Garcia-Jauregui opened the back sliding window of the truck and shot and killed the officer.
The girl then sped from the scene, according to court documents, which largely rely on dash-camera footage from Wride's and other police vehicles.
Prosecutors believe Grunwald was still driving the truck when she and Garcia-Jauregui encountered Sherwood in Santaquin.
Sherwood's dashboard camera — played for jurors on Thursday — showed the deputy following the truck in his patrol vehicle. Once he turned on his flashing lights and sirens, the white truck braked suddenly, closing the distance between the two vehicles, and two shots were fired. One bullet struck Sherwood in the head.
Sherwood testified Thursday that immediately after he was shot, he blacked out, but managed to somehow stop his vehicle on the Santaquin road.
"I didn't know if they were going to go back and continue firing at me," Sherwood said. "I was in no position to defend myself."
Sherwood was taken to a local hospital, where he underwent his first of three surgeries. The white truck drove back to the freeway, before its tires were spiked by a Utah Highway Patrol trooper in Juab County.
The couple fled from the car, according to trial testimony, and commandeered another vehicle at gunpoint. That vehicle too was disabled by tire spikes south of Nephi. It was there that Juab County sheriff' deputies arrested the pair after shooting Garcia-Jauregui in the head.
Garcia-Jauregui died at a hospital the next day.
Twitter: @jm_miller