This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A Utah judge has ruled that now-19-year-old Meagan Grunwald — who was sent to prison for her role in a 2014 crime spree that left one police officer dead and another wounded — will not receive a new trial.
Grunwald was sentenced in July to a 25-years-to-life term at the Utah State Prison after a jury found her guilty of first-degree felony aggravated murder and 10 other crimes.
The jury found that Grunwald, then 17, was criminally culpable on Jan. 30, 2014, when she drove her truck through two counties as her boyfriend, 27-year-old Jose Angel Garcia-Jauregui, fired a gun out the back window at police officers and passing motorists.
Utah County sheriff's Sgt. Cory Wride was killed that day, while Deputy Greg Sherwood was severely wounded. Garcia-Jauregui also died in a shootout with police in Nephi.
In a motion filed last year, Grunwald's attorneys asked for a new trial, arguing that 4th District Judge Darold McDade's comments at her sentencing hearing crossed the line and showed that he was biased against her. They argued that a new trial was warranted because they believed McDade's bias affected his rulings on motions before the trial began.
But in his Tuesday ruling, McDade pointed to a previous ruling by Judge David Mortensen — who was asked to decide whether to disqualify McDade from handling the case — where Mortensen found neither "evidence of actual bias nor evidence sufficient to raise a reasonable question of impartiality" in Grunwald's case.
McDade further ruled that his comments at sentencing were not biased, and said he made the comments in response to Grunwald's claims at trial that she didn't know Garcia-Jauregui was a violent felon on parole or that she had never been exposed to firearms before.
At the sentencing hearing, McDade told Grunwald that in 2008, during his first year as a judge, he sentenced Garcia-Jauregui to prison for up to 15 years for attempted murder.
"I knew the type of person he had the potential to be," the judge told Grunwald during her sentencing hearing. "It's very hard for me to believe that in the short time you knew him, you didn't see that as well."
McDade's latest ruling now clears the way for Grunwald to take her case to an appellate court, though her attorneys have not filed a notice that they were doing so as of Thursday.
Along with the 25-years-to-life sentence, McDade also ordered Grunwald to serve a consecutive five-years-to-life term for aggravated robbery.
The judge, however, ordered the remaining nine charges — including a count of attempted aggravated murder in Sherwood's shooting — to run concurrent to the other sentences. The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole has set an original parole hearing date for Grunwald in 2042.
Grunwald testified at trial that on the day of the shooting, while on a drive with Garcia-Jauregui, he learned during a phone call that the parole board had issued a warrant for his arrest.
As they were stopped at the side of the road in Utah County, Wride happened to pull up to see if they needed help. When Wride asked their names, Garcia-Jauregui gave a false name.
The teen testified that as Wride checked their information in his patrol vehicle, Garcia- Jauregui told her that if she didn't do what he said, he would shoot her and kill her family.
Soon after, Garcia-Jauregui killed Wride, 44, by shooting out the rear window of Grunwald's pickup truck.
Later that day, Garcia-Jauregui shot and wounded Sherwood, 39, in Santaquin.
Prosecutors pointed to police dashboard-camera recordings and witness testimony as evidence to counter Grunwald's claims that she was threatened to act as getaway driver by her boyfriend. They claim she was a willing participant who was compelled by her love and loyalty to Garcia-Jauregui.
Twitter: @jm_miller