Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — Norvert Winston was just beginning to talk with his son Kenyatta about what it meant to be a man.
They had discussions about integrity, planning for the future and about Kenyatta bringing home grandchildren one day.
"They've taken that from me," Norvert Winston said Friday of the men accused of killing his 16-year-old boy. "Life is not the same anymore — period."
Frank Paul Reyos, 31, was ordered Friday to stand trial for aggravated murder, a first-degree felony, and possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person, a third-degree felony, in Kenyatta Winston's death. Third District Judge Randall Skanchy also ordered David Angel Montes to stand trial for obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony.
Montes, 22, had been charged with murder, but prosecutors amended and reduced his charge Friday.
"We decided that all we could prove was obstruction and not murder," Salt Lake County deputy district attorney Fred Burmester said after the hearing.
"Kenny" Winston was last seen alive on Aug. 26, 2012, when he was getting in a car with Montes. The day before, Winston and Reyos had been involved in a fight at a party near 1300 South and 200 East, testified Natasha Alvarado, who was transported from the Utah State Prison for the hearing.
Winston ran off, she said, and Reyos was angry that the teen had left him at the party.
I would do anything to get him back, but I can't.
–Norvert Winston
Winston showed up the next morning. "I told him that Frank was mad and he should lay low and let him cool off," Alvarado said. "Because Frank is mean when he's mad."
Reyos later arrived with Montes, she said. Reyos and Winston left the room and could be heard arguing. By the time they came back, "it was cool," Alvarado said.
They told her they were going to a firing range and Alvarado said she insisted on coming with them because she "didn't have a good feeling." Instead, the four drove around Sugar House looking for something to steal, she testified. They ended up in an alley between two homes and Reyos and Winston exited the car.
Alvarado said she started to open her door but said, "Frank shut it on me." She said she saw Winston look around a fence he was standing by and then saw Reyos gesture for him to move over. She looked away to speak with Montes and then heard a gunshot.
"I started crying. I put my hand, my face in my hands," she said, blinking away tears.
Reyos returned to the car, hugged her from behind and said Winston had "tried to rob the wrong people," she testified.
The 16-year-old's body was found three days later by construction workers in an empty lot at 1120 E. Crandall Ave. (2900 South).
Related Story
2 men charged with murder of Kenyatta Winston
Two men arrested in connection with the shooting death of a 16-year-old boy in August have been charged with murder.Prosecutors also presented a letter Friday from Trenton Taylor who claimed that Reyos told him that he had killed Winston.
Charging documents indicate that after Alvarado found out Winston had been killed, she went to a room at Zion's Motel, 1829 S. State, "where she and others with Kenyatta had been staying over the weekend and partying" and "cleaned the room to destroy any evidence that linked Kenyatta to the room and to them."
Alvarado, 34, was charged with obstructing justice, a second-degree felony, but those charges were dismissed in January.
Jessica Reyos, 38, pleaded no contest to obstruction of justice and was ordered to serve four days in jail and six months of probation. Brittney Montano, 22, was also charged with obstructing justice. She was arrested again Wednesday after failing to show up to court earlier in the month.
Shelby Reed pleaded no contest last month to attempting to obstruct justice, a class A misdemeanor. She will be sentenced Oct. 7.
Norvert Winston said Friday's preliminary hearing "stirred up a lot of emotions," but he expressed gratitude that the court system had not allowed his son's case to "slip through the cracks."
"I would do anything to get him back, but I can't," he said.
Following the preliminary hearing, Reyos pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
