A Utah teen faced a judge for the first time Monday after she allegedly drove her boyfriend as he fired on Utah County Sheriff’s deputies, killing one and wounding another during a highway crime spree late last month.
Baby-faced Meagan Dakota Grunwald, 17, will be tried as an adult on 12 felony charges that she, in a drug-addled state, drove while her boyfriend, Jose Angel Garcia-Juaregui, 27, ripped off several shots at pursuing authorities during several hours of mayhem on Jan. 30.
Al Hartmann/AP
Authorities say Meagan Dakota Grunwald drove while her boyfriend, Jose Angel Garcia-Juaregui, ripped off several shots at cops on Jan. 30.
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Garcia-Juaregui was fatally wounded in a shootout with Juab County deputies on Interstate 15 south of Nephi.
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Jose Angel Garcia-Juaregui, 27, who was killed as he and Grunwald tried to escape authorities.
“You not going to let me kiss my girl with my last dying breath?” Garcia-Juaregui asked law enforcement as the Bonnie and Clyde-like duo were taken into custody.
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Utah County Sheriff’s Office
Utah County Deputy Sgt. Cory Wride was shot and killed in his patrol car while running the duo’s names through dispatch.
He later died at a hospital and Grunwald was kept at a juvenile offender facility until prosecutors decided to charge her as an adult, the Deseret News reported.
“She is — and in most instances would be characterized as — a child,” the teen’s defense attorney, Dean Zabriskie, said in court Monday. “Her experiences, except for this last horrendous experience, have been that of a child. So being locked up in an adult environment with these charges, I would guess, is traumatizing for her.”
Meagan Dakota Grunwald’s defense attorney says the suspect is a child and may be traumatized by being locked up in an adult environment.
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But Grunwald made plenty of adult decisions during her binge of violence, police and prosecutors say. Despite several opportunities to flee Garcia-Juaregui or give herself up, Grunwald was committed to participating in the crimes.
Al Hartmann/AP
Grunwald will be tried as an adult on 12 felony charges that she drove while her boyfriend shot at cops, killing one and wounding another.
The couple’s bout of bloodshed began around 1 p.m. in Eagle Mountain when Utah County Deputy Sgt. Cory Wride stopped to help Grunwald and Garcia-Juaregui, who had pulled their white pickup truck to the side of the road.
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Mark Johnston/AP
Deputy Greg Sherwood and his wife, Gina, sit in his hospital room.
As Wride ran the duo’s names through dispatch, court papers say, Garcia-Juaregui opened fire through the back window of the truck, fatally wounding Wride in the head and neck as he sat in his patrol car.
The murderers were long gone when another deputy went to check on the absent Wride some 45 minutes after the shooting.
Al Hartmann/AP
Grunwald was ‘not just along for the ride,’ prosecutors say, but an active participant in the mayhem.
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When Deputy Greg Sherwood spotted the truck some hours later, Grunwald gunned it and tried to lose the cops. But she suddenly slammed on the brakes, according to court documents, to narrow the gap between the two cars so her boyfriend could rip off more shots. Sherwood was shot in the head and critically wounded.
Mark Johnston/AP
Deputy Greg Sherwood looks at his reflection while in his hospital room at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, Utah, on Feb. 10. Sherwood was critically wounded when Jose Angel Garcia-Juaregui shot him in the head.
He left the hospital about three weeks after the incident.
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Al Hartmann/AP
Meagan Dakota Grunwald, 17, who has been charged as an adult in the shootings of two Utah deputies, makes her first appearance in court in Provo, Utah, on Monday.
Eventually, officers used spike strips to slow the vehicle. But the couple fled the truck and carjacked a nearby SUV, leaving the female driver and her young child on the side of the road.
The second car was again stopped by spike strips and crashed into a second vehicle. As the couple ran towards the other car to try and escape, deputies opened fire, fatally wounding Garcia-Juaregui as a distraught Grunwald ran to his side.
Mark Johnston/AP
Utah Deputy Greg Sherwood (center) is joined by his wife, Gina (right), son Braxton (left) and other family and friends at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center on Feb. 10.
“You f—— shot hm!” she yelled, court documents indicate. “Come on baby,” she told him as he struggled for breath.
Her demeanor — and the aggressive way she drove during the chase and shooting — prove Grunwald was not coerced into committing the bloody acts.
“She was not just along for the ride,” Utah County Attorney Tim Taylor told a news conference last week. “She was an active participant in the crime.”
Grunwald is held in lieu of $ 1 million bond and faces life in prison if convicted.
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