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Ogden • A jury convicted an Ogden man, who was charged with murder, of a lesser count of manslaughter in connection with the 2013 shooting of an alleged gang member at a drunken party.
Ruben Alvarado Nava III, 42, was charged in Ogden's 2nd District Court with first-degree felony murder, along with one count of third-degree felony use of a firearm by a restricted person and illegal discharge of a weapon, in the fatal shooting of 23-year-old Mario Saucedo during a party at a Roy home on Sept. 8, 2013.
The eight-member jury began deliberations just before 6 p.m. on Wednesday and came back with a verdict nearly six hours later — finding Nava guilty of second-degree felony manslaughter and use of a firearm by a restricted person.
"We respect that verdict," Deputy Weber County Attorney Benjamin Willoughby told The Tribune on Thursday. "The jury was very attentive through a very long trial. They thought about it late, late into the night and you have to respect that. I think the issue with us is that this was a difficult case, always."
"This was a party where gang members were invited and tolerated. Fifteen adults [were] at a party and someone gets shot in front of all of them, and only one person speaks to what happened."
Willoughby said the case was riddled with "perjury and obstruction of justice" from partygoers, but said officials continued to work long hours over several years to take the case to trial. He said he felt nothing more could have been done by prosecutors to secure a murder conviction.
"I'm proud that regardless of who the victim was, that we still gave him the same attention and effort as every other murder victim in Weber County," he said.
Nava now faces up to 15 years in prison on the manslaughter conviction, and up to five years behind bars for the third-degree felony. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 4 in 2nd District Judge Noel Hyde's courtroom.
"We believe that jury returned an appropriate verdict in this case," Nava's attorney, Jonathan Hanks, said Thursday in a prepared statement. "From the beginning it has been our position that the case was overcharged. We thank the jury for rendering a verdict that conforms to the facts and the law."
In the jury's decision to convict Nava of manslaughter, they decided that Nava "incorrectly believed" he acted in self-defense that night, according to Willoughby.
Hanks had asked the jurors to acquit him of the murder charge, telling them during closing arguments Wednesday that Saucedo and his friends started "gang talk" and were trying to start a confrontation.
Prosecutors have said some of the witnesses say the deadly fight was started over who had paid for the beer being consumed at the house, located near 2950 W. 4650 South. But others reported that it was over Saucedo's ties to the Ogden Trece street gang, and Nava's association with the Southern California Surenos subset El Monte Flores.
Willoughby told jurors Wednesday the party went on for hours, with partygoers having a "good time." But as the night wore on, tempers began to flare and people spilled out onto the street just after midnight.
"It was a big old-fashioned fist fight," the prosecutor told jurors. "A lot of big guys out there fighting a lot of big guys. Punches are flying. Everybody is punching."
At some point, Nava pulled out a gun and fired several times. One bullet hit Saucedo in the chest, tearing though his heart.
Though police found no other weapons in the aftermath of the fight, Hanks told jurors Nava was in fear because he thought someone might have had a knife. He added that one of the people in Saucedo's group was heard saying, "Pop the trunk," which Hanks said was "gang parlance" for "get the guns."
Twitter: @jm_miller