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SALT LAKE CITY — The woman convicted as a teenage accomplice in the murder of Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Cory Wride filed an appeal Friday claiming her attorneys failed her at trial.
Meagan Dakota Grunwald, now 20, was 17 years old when she acted as the getaway driver for her older boyfriend, who had just shot and killed Wride as he sat in his patrol vehicle on Jan. 30, 2014. Utah County sheriff's deputy Greg Sherwood was shot and gravely wounded in the pursuit as her boyfriend fired at officers and other drivers out the window as they sped through two counties.
At trial, Grunwald claimed threats against her life and the lives of her family kept her behind the wheel, even as the couple hijacked another car and continued their flight.
Her boyfriend, Jose Angel Garcia-Juaregui, 27, was killed in a shootout with police on the side of the freeway in Juab County.
A jury found Grunwald guilty in May 2015 of aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder, first-degree felonies. She was denied a new trial in February after her attorneys claimed 4th District Judge Darold McDade was biased as the case was adjudicated.
Grunwald was charged as an accomplice to Garcia's crimes, making her equally liable for the shootings, though she never touched the gun that day.
In the appeal filed in the Utah Court of Appeals on Friday, Grunwald's attorney, Douglas Thompson, claimed her counsel at trial failed to object to poorly worded jury instructions, which lowered the state's burden of proof to less than what the law requires.
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Grunwald sentenced to 30 years to life in prison
Meagan Grunwald hung her head and wept, reaching shackled hands to wipe away tears, as family members Wednesday recounted the love and kindness of the sheriff's deputy she is convicted of killing.Rather than saying that prosecutors needed to prove Grunwald knew her own actions would lead Garcia to commit crimes, jury instructions implied the state only needed to show that Grunwald knew Garcia's actions were criminal, according to the 103-page appeal.
"This error completely disconnected Meagan's mental state from her conduct and made it much easier for the state to prove Meagan had that knowledge. No reasonable lawyer would have wanted to reduce the state's burden in this way," Thompson wrote in the appeal.
Grunwald was ordered to spend at least 30 years and up to life in prison. The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole has set a tentative date for Grunwald's first parole hearing for July 1, 2042.
A hearing regarding the appeal has not yet been set.
