Judge unseals charges against teen accused of shooting clerk

Judge unseals charges against teen accused of shooting clerk

(Derek Petersen, KSL TV, File)


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SALT LAKE CITY — Previously sealed charging documents and a juvenile court history have been released for a 16-year-old accused of shooting a compliant convenience store clerk during a robbery last month.

KSL and the Deseret News fought for the release of the records, which are normally public documents.

The teen is accused, along with two 17-year-olds who he told police were his "best friends," of robbing four convenience stores at gunpoint.

After the clerk at the final store, an Exxon convenience store at 2187 W. 4700 South, opened the cash registers on Jan. 23 and allowed the teens to take the cash inside, the 16-year-old told police he shot the clerk twice because "he wasn't listening to me," and "the clerk thought it was a game and wasn't taking them seriously," charging documents state.

However, police said the clerk was in "total compliance" with the teens' demands.

Maxwell Vanorden, 21, was shot once in his left leg, shattering his femur. The second bullet went through his left wrist — shattering it — and then continued into his abdomen, piercing his bladder, according to police and prosecutors.

In the three Jan. 22 robberies, police say the teens also brandished guns, ordering convenience store clerks to empty cash registers and lay on the ground. In one incident, a clerk told police one of the gunmen ordered him to lay face down on the ground and not look up or he would "smear my brains across the floor," the charges state.

According to court documents unsealed Tuesday, the 16-year-old faces four first-degree felony counts of aggravated robbery, the same charges filed against the two 17-year-olds. He is also charged with two counts of felony discharge of a firearm with serious bodily injury, first-degree felonies.

The 16-year-old has been previously referred to juvenile court four times between 2014 and 2015 for misdemeanor offenses, including assault with a substantial risk of bodily injury, criminal mischief, a synthetic cannabinoid violation and possession of marijuana, according to a case history summary unsealed Tuesday.

Police investigating the robberies went to the Magna home of one of the 17-year-old boys and found money and cigarettes believe to have been taken in the Exxon robbery, a .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun, a revolver, a shotgun, ammunition for the handguns and cellphones, according to recently unsealed search warrant affidavits.

At the West Valley home of the other 17-year-old's brother, the man and his girlfriend told police that just after 5 a.m. on Jan. 23, the 17-year-old and the 16-year-old came running into the house, the affidavit states. The teens told the woman they had robbed the convenience store and that the 16-year-old had shot the clerk.

The teens had been driving the woman's SUV, where police found a coat believed to have been worn during the robbery, live shotgun shells, marijuana and the 17-year-old boy's wallet, the warrant states.

The woman told police she took the handgun used in the robbery and hid it in some blankets, and that the other 17-year-old later came and took the gun, according to an affidavit.

A second warrant was issued for the home of the 16-year-old, where he was taken into custody without incident while he was sleeping.

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According to police, the three teens communicated using the Facebook Messenger app on the their cellphones.

The Deseret News has opted not to name the teens at this time.

The three boys were charged earlier this month, but 3rd District Juvenile Judge Dane Nolan sealed court filings related to the 16-year-old at the request of the Utah Juvenile Defenders Association.

Under Utah law, felony criminal cases for juveniles 14 and older are presumed to be open to the public unless "good cause" can be shown otherwise.

KSL and the Deseret News filed a motion to intervene in the case in order to argue that the records be released and the court hearings be open to the public. Attorney David Reymann of Parr Brown Gee and Loveless argued on behalf of the news organizations Friday, saying that the juvenile defenders' motion made little argument as to why the teen's specific case should not be subject to state law that would classify the case as open to the public.

The teen's attorney, Bill Russell, asked the judge Friday that hearings in the case be closed so that the 16-year-old's girlfriend and the child they share, both of whom are underage, may attend unhindered. He also requested that Nolan issue an order prohibiting reporters from attempting to talk to anyone related to the boy on court property.

Nolan denied the defense attorney's requests, saying that under those arguments virtually all juvenile cases would be closed contrary to Utah law.

In his ruling, Nolan referred to a decision in a similar case by 3rd District Juvenile Judge Kim Hornak, who in December agreed to unseal murder charges filed against three West Valley teens accused in the death of West Valley police officer Cody Brotherson.

That closure, made at the behest of the teens' attorneys, was opposed by a coalition of journalists, including the Deseret News, KSL-TV, KSL Newsradio, ABC 4, KUTV, the Salt Lake Tribune, Fox 13 and the Utah Headliners Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

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