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SALT LAKE CITY — One of two suspects accused of gunning down a Salt Lake man outside a Millcreek apartment complex last year has admitted to a reduced charge as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Alekzander Ethan May, 20, pleaded guilty Friday in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court to manslaughter, a second-degree felony, in the death of Taylor Kauvaka, 31.
May appeared in court over a video feed from the Salt Lake County Jail and showed little emotion during the hearing. He faces at least one and up to 15 years in the Utah State Prison.
May shot Kauva once in the chest, his defense attorney Rudy Bautista said during Friday's hearing, and did so "while reasonably but incorrectly believing that he was legally justified or excused by self defense."
Kauvaka and his brother-in-law had met May and another man, Edgar Omar Esquivel, at the Sunnyvale Apartments, 3990 S. 700 West, to fight after Equivel allegedly threatened to kill a woman and her infant son, police said.
Esquivel, 21, of West Jordan, has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, a first-degree felony; and criminal solicitation, a third-degree felony.
May originally faced the same charge of murder. A second charge of aggravated assault, a third-degree felony, was dropped in exchange for his guilty plea.
Kauvaka intervened after May pulled a shotgun from a cardboard box, then placed himself in front of someone else and slapped the gun, police said. May fired a single, fatal shot. After the shooting, May approached a police officer and told him that he had shot someone before leading the officer to a shotgun and shotgun shells, court documents said.
A sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled. Esquivel returns to court Sept. 7 for a pretrial conference.
