A cousin and fellow gang member of the 15-year-old boy charged with fatally shooting JoJo Lee Brandstatt on a West Valley City golf course testified Friday the boy was known for having a temper and served as a gang leader on the day of the murder.
"I think he was a follower before, but with the situation that happened he was a leader," 19-year-old Shardise Olataga Malaga told the court during the first day of a hearing in 3rd District Juvenile Court to determine whether the boy will be tried as an adult.
Malaga said her cousin was "spoiled" and admitted to being a member of the Outlaw Crips gang. She testified he would often meet with older gang members in their 20s and 30s.
Other kids in the neighborhood were scared of him, Malaga said.
"He would pick on kids older than him," she told the court.
Malaga said she, the boy, and others were involved in an altercation with another group of "Mexican kids" weeks before the shooting. Police arrived when an attempted stabbing took place, and the boy was uncooperative with investigators, Malaga said.
Should the 15-year-old be transferred to and then convicted of charges in adult court, he could become the youngest inmate in a Utah state prison.
That distinction was formerly held by Carlos Adrian Javier Hernandez, now 17, who is serving a sentence at the Gunnison prison, according to Utah Department of Corrections records. Herandez was 15 when he pleaded guilty in 2007 to raping and killing a teenage girl at a St.George park, and he was tried as an adult following a similar juvenile court hearing.
Prosecutors say the teenager accused in the Brandstatt case shot the 18-year-old Brandstatt after he was marched up a hill near the West Ridge Golf Course on Feb. 5. The teenage murder suspect was just 14 when the crime took place. He turned 15 on Nov.23.
Three adults previously have been ordered to stand trial in 3rd District Court in connection with the case and are awaiting trials. They are Malaga, 19; Spencer Isaiah Cater, 19; and Jeremiah Ha'k Williamson, 27. The boy and the three adults all charged with one count of aggravated murder, two counts of aggravated kidnapping and five counts of aggravated robbery.
A videotape showed during the 15-year-old's preliminary hearing showed the boy's Feb. 6 interview by West Valley City Police Department detectives in which the sobbing teenager confessed to shooting Brandstatt twice. The teen said he was high on marijuana and pressured to pull the trigger by Cater, who allegedly believed the victim "knew too much."
Gregory Brown, 19, a drug dealer who has testified in connection with the case, alleges Brandstatt was targeted in part because he wore a red shirt and claimed allegiance to a Norteño gang, a rival of the defendants' Crips gang.
Brown said 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 robbed him and said if Brown was able to get $2,000 by the end of the night through robberies, they wouldn't kill him, he told the court.
According to Brown, he called Brandstatt, who agreed to meet up with the group at Kearns Junior High School with the address of a gang member to rob, he said. When he arrived, Brandstatt was wearing a red T-shirt and red shoelaces, a color that indicated a connection to Norteño gang members. Brown alleged the boy said, "Let's just finish off this Norte."
The defendants drove to the golf course where Brandstatt was shot and allegedly coerced Brown into using a pellet gun to rob three convenience stores afterward. Defense attorneys argued Brown was a willing participant and not a victim.
In August, new charges were filed against the 15-year-old and two adults charged in Brandstatt's murder alleging the trio and Brown worked together to burglarize a South Jordan home shortly before Brandstatt's murder.
The 15-year-old, along with Brown, Williamson and Malaga, are accused of stealing a 42-inch Sony television, a Canon printer, a Toshiba laptop, a Sony stereo receiver, four speakers, a DVD player and a Comcast cable receiver, according to charging documents.
The the burglary victim was a former roommate of Brown's, according to charging documents filed in 3rd District Court.
Thirteen days after the burglary, the 15-year-old, Williamson, and Malaga allegedly kidnapped Brown for ransom and murdered Brandstatt.
Retaliation against gang members associated with the murder of JoJo Brandstatt continues 10 months after the teenager's death, according to charging documents filed in 3rd District Court this week.
Zackeri Johnson, 18, recently attacked the 15-year-old boy accused of Brandstatt's murder while the two were at the Salt Lake Valley Detention Center together.
Johnson approached the 15-year-old on Nov. 8 and punched him two times in the face, charges filed Thursday state.
Johnson told the 15-year-old, "That was for my dead homie JoJo," court documents state. Johnson is now charged with third-degree felony assault by a prisoner.
» The hearing continues Monday and Tuesday before 3rd District Juvenile Court Judge Andrew Valdez.
» Three adult defendants charged with the slaying are awaiting trial scheduled to begin Feb.2 before 3rd District Judge William Barrett.
