Prosecutors on Tuesday charged four people with murder for what is described as a botched robbery in 2017 in the parking lot of the Utah Olympic Oval.
A single bullet to the head killed 20-year-old Joshua Belen on Oct. 21, 2017. Criminal charges filed Tuesday in state court in Salt Lake City, say it was Carson Michael O’Dell who fired that shot.
O’Dell, 19, was charged with murder, robbery and obstruction of justice. So, too, was Israel Ramirez-Torres, 20.
Anthony Gene Knight and Angel Manuel Fernandez, both 19, were charged with murder and robbery. The murder and robbery charges carry sentences of up to life in prison.
(Courtesy of Salt Lake County jail) Carson M. O'Dell
(Courtesy of Salt Lake County jail) Angel Manuel Fernandez
(Courtesy of Salt Lake County jail) Israel Ramirez-Torres
(Courtesy of Salt Lake County jail) Anthony Gene Knight
Previous court documents had already implicated the four in Belen’s death. The new filings say the foursome planned to rob a drug dealer and targeted Belen. Arrangements were made to meet him in the parking lot shared by the Olympic Oval and the Kearns Oquirrh Park Fitness Center.
Knight stayed in a vehicle, the court documents say, while Ramirez-Torres kept lookout at the gate to the parking lot. O’Dell and Fernandez went into the parking lot.
O’Dell later told a Unified Police detective that Belen drew a pistol and held it at his side, court documents say. O’Dell and Fernandez drew their own pistols.
“O’Dell stated that he yelled at Belen to drop his pistol,” an affidavit from a detective reads, “but Belen charged his gun and pointed it toward Fernandez. O’Dell stated that he shot Belen once.”
Fernandez ran from the scene, fell and shot himself in the thigh, court documents say. West Jordan police later interviewed him and Knight at Jordan Valley Hospital.
O’Dell was already charged with multiple counts of robbery and assault from two separate incidents in 2019. He’s been held without bail in the Salt Lake County jail since Nov. 19.
Fernandez has been booked into the jail in lieu of $1 million bond. Knight and Ramirez-Torres also have been booked on the new charges plus violation of previous court orders and are being held without bail.
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