Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — The mother of an 18-year-old who was shot and killed outside of his home in Magna in 2017 said she no longer knows how to live — she is reminded of her son everywhere she goes.
Briza Villalobos said she used to drive to the home of Isaac Patton to give his brother a ride to football practices. Patton has been convicted of killing Villalobos' son, Tristen Mogadam, for which she said Patton shows no remorse. At Patton's sentencing on Tuesday, almost seven years after her son's death, Villalobos said if Patton had not killed her son, he would have killed someone else.
"You have no remorse — every birthday and holiday, now, I have to go to the cemetery instead of celebrating with Tristen. I have to go to the cemetery to decorate a grave. You get to still see your mom, I don't get to see my son. I never will again, ever. I only have pictures and videos I replay constantly just to hear his voice," she said.
She said her son was an athlete and had planned to move in with his girlfriend the next week, which is why he had money in his pocket — for the security deposit and rent. She said Patton would have taken the money if her son hadn't run away.
"You're not even sorry, Issac," Villalobos told the man.
Patton, 24, was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years to life in prison for murder and five years to life in prison for aggravated robbery, both first-degree felonies, which will run consecutively.
He was also sentenced to one to 15 years in prison each for three counts of felony discharge of a firearm, a second-degree felony, and zero to five years in prison for use of a firearm as a restricted person, a third-degree felony. These sentences will run concurrently with the sentences for the first-degree felonies, meaning Patton will spend at least 20 years in prison.
He was 17 at the time of the offense but was charged as an adult and moved from juvenile detention to the Salt Lake County Jail less than a month after he was charged.
Patton was found guilty by a jury on March 24, 2023. His sentence did not happen until almost a year later because he asked the court to reverse his conviction, but that request was denied in October.
During his sentencing, Patton declined to comment initially but after hearing from the victim's family, he spoke to say the reason he is not commenting is because he plans to appeal his case.
His attorney, George Wright, asked the judge to order all of the sentences be served at the same time; he said Patton will already be in prison for a long time and asked for the court to give him the minimum still possible. He also asked for credit for the 2,491 days Patton has already been incarcerated.
He said the robbery charge doesn't make sense because the victim still had money on him, and if you rob someone you don't bring witnesses and do it in front of people.
"The jury made a ruling, a finding, and I accept that … legally I'm an officer of the court and I accept it, but I don't agree with it your honor," Wright said.
On Feb. 16, 2017, Patton came to buy marijuana from Mogadam and Patton pulled out a gun and shot Mogadam in the back as he was trying to run to his home, according to charging documents. He told police, when questioned, that he believed Mogadam was a member of a rival gang.
Multiple family members of Tristen Mogadam said at the sentencing he was not a drug dealer or gang member, and expressed concern for Patton's lack of remorse.
His older brother, Amir Mogadam, said he grew up with Patton's family and played little league and high school football with his brother; he said giving Patton's brother a ride to practices was Tristen Mogadam's idea.
"For you to take my brother's life for no reason, it's cowardly," he said.
His younger brother who is now 17, the age of Patton when he murdered Tristen Mogadam, said losing his brother at 10 years old was very hard for him — his brother was a father figure.
"(Patton) didn't just make a small little mistake, man, that he could just brush off — he took a life. … He took my older brother," Angel Alvarez said.
The family asked for the maximum sentence possible for Patton.
Patton currently faces multiple pending charges from his time in custody and was sentenced in July 2019 to up to five years in prison for assaulting an inmate at the jail.
One other man was charged in connection with Mogadam's death, but his charges were dismissed in February 2020 after prosecutors delayed the preliminary hearing multiple times and were still not ready to move forward with the case.
