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SALT LAKE CITY — A Springville man is accused of shooting a woman in the head and spraying a Millard County house with gunfire.
Joshua Baer, 18, was charged in Millard County's 4th District Court on Wednesday with attempted aggravated murder and discharge of a firearm, both first-degree felonies.
Millard County sheriff's deputies responded to a report of a woman shot in the head at about 1:30 a.m. June 20 in the area of 350 West and 100 North in Delta, according to charging documents.
Investigators learned that the woman's husband had heard noises in front of his house and went outside to investigate. That's when he saw someone standing in front of his house "pointing a red laser beam at him," the charges state.
The husband "quickly closed the door then heard a barrage of gunfire. … Deputies later recovered 14 spent 9 mm casings from the streets in front of and to the side of (the) residence. Deputies also located five bullet holes in the front of the house," according to charging documents.
Bullets were also found in trees and cars in front of the house.
One of the bullets traveled through walls of the house and hit the man's wife in the head. Amazingly, sheriff's deputies said, the injury was not serious and the woman was treated and released from the hospital the same day.
The husband told police that the gunman appeared to be the same person he had gotten into a verbal altercation with earlier in the evening, the charges state. Neighbors who saw the incident identified the other man as Baer, according to charging documents.
Deputies went to Baer's house to serve a search warrant. Evidence was collected that led investigators to arresting Baer.
The charges against him come one day after Baer was charged in 4th District Court with drug distribution, a second-degree felony, and drug possession, a class B misdemeanor. During the execution of the search warrant for the attempted homicide, deputies also found marijuana and vape cartridges, according to the charges.
Baer was being held Wednesday on $250,000 bail.
The Millard County Sheriff's Office said in a prepared statement that detectives are "confident" that others were also involved.
"We continue to aggressively investigate this criminal act and are offering a $2,000 reward for any additional information regarding accomplices, weapons, vehicles or other information that leads to the successful prosecution and conviction of those involved."
