Defendants ordered to stand trial in West Valley City golf course murder

A 3rd District Court judge on Friday ordered three adults to stand trial charged in connection with fatally shooting 18-year-old JoJo Lee Brandstatt at a West Valley City golf course earlier this year.

Judge Vernice Trease made the ruling after closing arguments from attorneys in the last day of a four-day preliminary hearing that started in May.

Prosecutors have charged 19-year-old Shardise Olataga Malaga , 18-year-old Spencer Isaiah Cater, Jeremiah Ha'k Williamson, 26, and a 14-year-old boy with murder, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery in connection with Brandstatt's murder on Feb. 5. The 14-year-old is charged in juvenile court but could be tried as an adult.

Brandstatt was targeted in part because he wore a red shirt and claimed allegiance to a Norteño gang, a rival to the Crips gang his captors were affiliated with, according to previous testimony from Gregory Brown, who witnessed Brandstatt's murder.

Brown, a 19-year-old drug dealer, testified during the preliminary hearing that he was kidnapped by the four defendants when he met them at a West Valley City Wendy's to trade marijuana for a gun. The group instead chose to rob Brown, and forced him for several hours to call known drug dealers to set up robberies. If Brown was able to get $2,000 by the end of the night through robberies, his captors told him they wouldn't kill him, he told the court.

Brown called Brandstatt, who agreed to meet up with the group

at Kearns Junior High School with the address of a gang member to rob. But when Brandstatt's stepmother dropped him off at the school, Brandstatt hopped out wearing a red T-shirt and red shoelaces. Brown has said that, and Brandstatt's supposed connection to Norteño gang members, angered the 14-year-old.

Testimony throughout the preliminary hearing has presented conflicting accounts of events leading up to Brandstatt's slaying and which adults were a party to the crime.

Defense attorneys have claimed Brown lured his friend to the group to save himself, knowing that Brandstatt's gang association would set off the group and shift attention from the money Brown needed to come up with.

The group allegedly coerced Brown into using a pellet gun to rob three convenience stores following the slaying, but defense attorneys argued Brown was a willing participant and not a victim.

In closing arguments Friday, defense attorney Jeff Hall called Brown's testimony "simply not believable" and suggested Brown should have been charged in the crime as well.

"What we have is a hearsay from an unreliable, uncharged person," Hall said of Brown, in arguing why the case shouldn't move to trial.

Prosecutor Mike Postma said Brown's testimony was consistent with admissions made by all three defendants to police after they were arrested .

"All three were a party to the offense that evening," Postma said.

 

He cited examples of the three defendant's involvement, including testimony where Brown said Cater told him "Sorry, we've got to do your boy," before Brandstatt was shot.

Cater later told Brown, "You're lucky you're not dead too."

Postma said Malaga admitted to planning to rob and kidnap Brown several days before the incident took place.

In previous testimony from the preliminary hearing, West Valley City police Detective David Greco said that Malaga told him the 14-year-old accused of shooting and killing Brandstatt was "trying to fit in."

Greco said the girl, who was tearful when being questioned about her role by police, also told him Cater was egging the boy on. Cater was telling him to "do it, you won't get caught. I will take everything," Greco testified.

Malaga told Greco said she tried to talk the 14-year-old out of the shooting and suggested going back to the golf course to check on Brandstatt.

But Postma pointed out in closing arguments that Malaga did not do much to remove herself from the situation, therefore making her an accessory to Brandstatt's murder.

"Simply saying 'Hey, I'm not down with this' is not enough," Postma said.

Williamson's attorney, Brennon Fuelling, has argued that his client was simply driving the vehicle the day the events unfolded and didn't know what was going to happen.

Friday marked the final day in the preliminary hearing for the adult defendants, which Trease continued in part to consider a defense request to throw out part of the May 14 testimony of Dane Lunn.

Lunn, a cellmate of Cater's at the Salt Lake County jail, said Cater told him he witnessed Brandstatt's murder, but didn't pull the trigger. Lunn allegedly took notes of the jailhouse account and sent a copy to his mother before contacting police. Defense attorneys contend Lunn's testimony and some of his evidence isn't admissible. Defense attorneys argued a document produced by Lunn summarizing his discussion with Cater shouldn't be admissible because it wasn't a copy of Lunn's original notes. Lunn said he destroyed the original notes because police suggested he do so for his own protection in jail.

Trease denied the request. She said the issue was not appropriate to take up during the preliminary hearing, but that defense attorneys can bring the issue forward again during the trial.

 

Elka Fernandez, Brandstatt's mother, said outside the courtroom that it's a relief to see the case moving forward. But, she added, "nothing's going to bring my son back."

She said she's frustrated the defendants haven't confessed to her son's murder and said she wishes they would plead guilty so the case can be resolved.

mrogers@sltrib.com