- Jesus Molina was sentenced to prison for a 2017 Halloween killing in West Jordan.
- Molina received concurrent sentences for manslaughter and firearm discharge felonies.
- Prosecutors withdrew an initial plea deal and the Utah Court of Appeals upheld their right to do so.
WEST JORDAN — A man who admitted to shooting and killing a friend following an argument on Halloween night in 2017 will now spend at least five years in prison.
Jesus Molina pleaded guilty on Tuesday and was sentenced to prison in the same hearing to a term of one to 15 years in prison for manslaughter, a second-degree felony, and a term of five years to life for felony discharge of a firearm, a first-degree felony. Third District Judge Chelsea Koch ordered the sentences to run at the same time.
He was originally charged with murder, a first-degree felony, but pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter as part of a plea deal.
and changed the other charge from obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony, to a first-degree felony.
Dan Zuniga-Guzman, 22, Molina and Breaaunah Huff were together and got into an argument which continued until they were dropping Zuniga-Guzman off at his home.
Police said Zuniga-Guzman spit in Huff's face, leading Molina to pull out a gun and shoot, according to charging documents. Initially neighbors thought the sound was a car crash. Zuniga-Guzman's body was found in the street at 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 1, 2017.
Molina and Huff fled to Tijuana, Mexico, to stay with Molina's family, police said, and were arrested a few months after the killing.
Investigators said Zuniga-Guzman initially went out with co-workers and was a friend with Molina's brother.
This is not the best plea that was offered to Molina. Prosecutors had initially offered to recommend that the judge order him to spend one more year in jail and then be placed on probation, but they rescinded that plea bargain before the plea was entered.
After an appeal, the Utah Court of Appeals determined that prosecutors could rescind their offer, and Molina's reliance on it did not have a detrimental effect on his case.
This initial plea deal was offered after a justification hearing, where a judge can dismiss a case if a defendant proves he acted in self-defense, was delayed twice. In a telephone conference the day before the justification hearing, prosecutors said the proposed plea was appropriate because of Molina's likelihood of winning at the justification hearing.
When they withdrew the offer later that evening, prosecutors said he could still plead guilty to manslaughter instead of murder, but they would not recommend the same jail sentence as before. Molina argued, and the 3rd District Court judge agreed, that he relied on that promise from prosecutors when he admitted to some facts on the record, called off witnesses for the justification hearing and forfeited the scheduled hearing.
Appellate court judges, however, did not agree and found the deal could be withdrawn.
Huff was charged with obstructing justice, a second-degree felony, but her case was dismissed by prosecutors in 2019.
