Estimated read time: 2-3 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 Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information.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.
FARMINGTON — A Bountiful man pleaded guilty Wednesday to murder after crashing a stolen car into a recently returned LDS Church missionary, killing her.
Anthony Santos Cruz, 28, was charged with first-degree felony murder of 21-year-old Jazmyn Jeppson, who was killed in the powerful crash after Cruz ran a red light fleeing a series of carjackings.
Jeppson graduated from Davis High School and attended BYU-Idaho before serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Houston, Texas. She had been home from her mission less than two months when she was killed.
Cruz also pleaded guilty Wednesday to robbery, reduced to a second-degree felony, while two counts of first-degree felony aggravated robbery were dismissed as part of a deal with prosecutors.
Cruz's girlfriend, Michelle Jennifer Vigil, 23, pleaded guilty last week to two counts of robbery, a second-degree felony, for her role in the first carjacking.
Cruz will be sentenced Aug. 10. Sentencing for Vigil is set for Aug. 17.
According to police, the couple stopped a woman driving on Mutton Hollow Road on Feb. 1 by having Vigil move into the middle of the street, forcing the driver to slam on her brakes to avoid hitting her. Vigil told the driver a man with a knife was coming to get her, and Cruz rushed over and took the car at knifepoint, pulling the woman out of the car, according to a police report.
The car broke down on I-15 near Centerville, where a Unified police officer on his way to work stopped to help the couple, not realizing the car was stolen. Police say Cruz walked away from the car and the officer, unsuccessfully trying to carjack a vehicle stopped in a freeway traffic jam.
At a third vehicle, police say Cruz forcefully took the car and continued south on I-15, "dragging (the car's owner) on the outside of the car at freeway speeds for some distance," charges state.
Cruz sped through a red light at the southbound Centerville exit, slamming into Jeppson's car and killing her, according to charging documents.
Cruz sustained injuries that were not life-threatening and was later booked into jail.
