Family of slain Utah smoke shop clerk struggles with grief as murder trial begins

Yelfris Sosa-Hurtado was angry over losing a fist fight when he opened fire inside a Poplar Grove neighborhood smoke shop in 2012, wounding its owner and leaving the man's son dead on the floor behind a counter.

"Because of a bruised ego and hurt pride, the defendant killed Stephen Chavez," Marc Mathis, a Salt Lake County assistant district attorney told a jury Tuesday during opening statements in a week-long trial.

Sosa-Hurtado 28, has pleaded not guilty to one count of first-degree felony aggravated murder and nine counts of third-degree felony discharge of a weapon and is expected to testify in his own defense.

A jury of six men and four women will decide Sosa-Hurtado's fate. If convicted on the murder charge, Sosa-Hurtado faces a possible punishment of 25 years to life in prison, or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The March 14, 2012, shooting followed a fight between the two men outside CJ's Smoke Shop, 876 W. 800 South, over Sosa-Hurtado's refusal to move his car from an alley behind the store when asked by shop owner Isabel Chavez.

Mathis told jurors that Stephen Guadalupe Chavez twice hit Sosa-Hurtado in the face and threw him to the ground. Sosa-Hurtado allegedly left in a huff and went to recruit his friend, Vladimir Suarez-Campos, to return with him to the store and settle the score.

According to Mathis, after Sosa-Hurtado entered the store, he pulled out a large assault rifle, looked at Isabel Chavez and said: "Now what?"

The first bullet shattered a display case and sent shards of glass into the elder Chavez's leg, Mathis said.

The second shot was aimed at Stephen Chavez, who dove behind a counter to the floor. He was lying on his stomach when Sosa-Hurtado then leaned over the case and fired two more shots into his back at close range.

As he fled the store, Sosa-Hurtado fired an additional nine shots. A bullet casing from later found by police in a garbage at Sosa-Hurtado's home matched those found at the store Mathis said.

A day after the shooting, Mathis said Sosa-Hurtado went to Las Vegas with Suarez-Chavez and others. For days he stayed out all night partying and gambling, telling his friend he expected to be arrested when he returned to Salt Lake City, Mathis said. Police arrested him in Midvale during a traffic stop on the return trip.

But defense attorneys say the case is one of "mistaken identity" and that witnesses to the crime gave police conflicting descriptions about the alleged shooter, including his physical size — one said tall, another, average height — his clothes and shoes, the color and make of the getaway car, and other details.

Defense attorney Patrick Corum said that is because in the heat of a dramatic moment like a shooting most people focus on the weapon.

"It's an assault rifle. It's big and powerful and it's the kind of thing that if somebody's got it out, you are not looking at their face," Corum said.

Even Isabel Chavez identified someone else as the shooter in a police lineup, and another witness identified Suarez-Campos as the alleged shooter, Corum said.

Suarez-Campos, 40, is also facing a murder charge in connection with the smoke shop shooting. But on Tuesday, prosecutors said he will testify to being shocked by the shooting.

Although he had been willing to help defend his friend's honor, Suarez-Campos now says he had expected nothing more than a fist fight or "boxing," Mathis said.

But Corum told jurors, "What the evidence will show is that Vladimir Suarez-Campos is a liar,"noting that the alleged getaway driver's story has changed over time. "He was either lying when he talked to the police, or he's lying now, or both."

But jurors won't need to rely on Suarez-Campos' version of events, Corum said, because Sosa-Hurtado, who was then a senior at the University of Utah poised to graduate with a degree in computer science, will take the stand to tell them what happened.

"You'll hear from Yelfris," Corum said. "He's going to tell you what happened and more importantly, he's going to tell you what didn't happen. Listen to him."

jdobner@sltrib.com