Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- Vincent Caleb Vasquez, 18, was charged Wednesday with obstruction and accused of aiding a murder suspect.
- Vasquez allegedly instructed Tayden Huntsman to dispose of evidence in a river.
- The murder weapon remains missing.
SALT LAKE CITY — A criminal charge was filed Wednesday against the alleged "shot caller" of a local street gang accused of telling a man to dispose of evidence in a homicide investigation and then trying to raise money to buy him a plane ticket out of town.
Vincent Caleb Vasquez, 18, is charged in 3rd District Court with obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony.
On March 9, West Jordan police responded to a shooting outside a house party at 7987 S. 6453 West. Hugo Lucero Perez, 19, was shot in the chest and killed.
Days after the shooting, police received an anonymous tip that Tayden Bentley Huntsman, 19, of Layton, may be the gunman, according to charging documents.
On March 13, Huntsman was arrested. A warrant served on his cellphone showed he was in the area of the Weber River for about three hours following the shooting, and detectives found a text message telling him to "throw it in a river," apparently referring to the gun used in the killing.
He was charged in 3rd District Court with aggravated murder, a first-degree felony; obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony; and witness tampering, a third-degree felony.
A detention hearing was held April 18 in 3rd District Court for Huntsman. Vasquez attended the hearing and was arrested at that time.
West Valley police who had searched Huntsman's phone "found that Huntsman was communicating with Vincent Caleb Vasquez after the shooting. Detectives identified Vasquez as a shot caller for the … gang that Huntsman is a member of," according to charging documents.
On the day of the shooting, "Vasquez exchanged messages through text and social media with Huntsman, instructing him to throw the firearm that was used in the incident in a river. Vasquez also offered to help gather money for Huntsman to get him out of the state," the charges state. After he was taken into custody, Vasquez allegedly admitted to asking friends for money to help Huntsman gather funds to leave town by purchasing a plane ticket.
"When asked, Vasquez confessed that he was communicating with Huntsman and told him to throw the gun in the river through messages," the charges continue. "Vasquez could not or would not tell detectives the gun's current location or whether Huntsman had disposed of the gun."
As of Thursday, the gun remains missing. Prosecutors have requested that Vasquez be held in the Salt Lake County Jail without the possibility of posting bail pending trial.
