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Elka Fernandez wears a T-shirt with a beaming photo of her son every time she goes to court. It reads "In loving memory of our baby JoJo."
The photo of a smiling 18-year-old is a reminder to those around Fernandez of who JoJo Lee Brandstatt was before police found his body on a West Valley City golf course on Feb.5: a jokester, a charmer, a teenager with aspirations to become a computer technician after graduating high school this year.
In recent months, attention paid to Brandstatt's violent death from an act of gang violence has overshadowed memories of who he was while living.
Fernandez and other family members are working to change that.
They have organized a march and rally scheduled for Saturday titled "Save Our Kids."
The event will honor Brandstatt but also condemn violence that accompanies drugs and gangs.
"Every day kids are being murdered and imprisoned because of drugs and gangs," reads the event flier designed by Fernandez, who was associated with gangs at one time herself but left the lifestyle.
She said despite grief over her son's death, she wants others to learn from what happened to him.
Her goal: to stop another child from being murdered.
The rally will begin at Salt Lake City's City Creek Park at 11 a.m. Participants will march to Washington Square.
The rally comes days before a 14-year-old who is the accused ringleader in Brandstatt's murder appears for a preliminary
The teenager --who is scheduled to appear before Judge Andrew Valdez on July 15 and 20 -- is the last of four defendants to go through a preliminary hearing and could be certified to stand trial for the murder charges in adult court.
Last month, 3rd District Judge Vernice Trease ordered the 14-year-old's three adult co-defendants to stand trial for their alleged roles in Brandstatt's killing.
Prosecutors charged 19-year-old Shardise Olataga Malaga, 18-year-old Spencer Isaiah Cater, Jeremiah Ha'k Williamson, 26, and the 14-year-old boy with murder, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery in connection with Brandstatt's slaying.
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.
Fernandez has said her son wasn't a fully initiated gang member, although some of his friends had ties to gangs.
Brown, a 19-year-old convicted drug dealer, testified during the preliminary hearing for the three adult defendants 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, a friend of his, 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 Brand -statt's slaying and who exactly was a party to the crime.
For Brandstatt's family, listening to detailed accounts of their loved one's final minutes has been excruciating.
But they've remained committed to raising public awareness about the devastating consequences of gangs and drugs since Brandstatt's death.
"Hopefully kids will learn not to get involved in these situations," Fernandez said after a recent court hearing.
"You have to be the stronger of the crowd," she said, of kids learning to say no to friends who encourage them to be gang-involved.
"Save Our Kids: Gang and Drug Awareness March and Rally"
July 11 at 11 a.m.
The march will start at City Creek Park (State Street and North Temple) and end at Washington Square.
