- Federal racketeering charges were expanded to include five more alleged gang members in Utah, including Steven Carmona.
- The sentencing for one of the new defendants was delayed Monday, due to the new federal charges and a request to withdraw a guilty plea.
- Charges allege multiple instances of attempted murder, assault and robbery from different gang members.
SALT LAKE CITY — A sentencing hearing in an aggravated murder case was delayed Monday, partly because the defense attorney wanted time to look into federal racketeering charges that mention his client's role in the killing.
Steven Carmona — who pleaded guilty to the July 2024 killing of 18-year-old Fayzan Ali at a West Jordan party — was added earlier this month to a federal anti-racketeering case, along with four other defendants. The other four include Yaeger Gleave, Angel Medina-Sahugun, Luis Mendoza and Christian Catemaxca-Trujillo — all believed to be associated with the same gang.
Javier Pedregon-Magana was indicted in the case in February as the first defendant. He is accused of attempting to murder his brother on Christmas after stabbing him multiple times and trying to run him over with a car. Pedregon-Magana said there was a "hit" on his brother because he was suspected of being a snitch, and Pedregon-Magana was asked to kill his brother to help clear his own name of "hit orders," charging documents state.
He is facing racketeering-related charges of assault with a weapon, assault causing injury and attempted murder. In 2019, Pedregon-Magana and Mendoza purchased drugs and then robbed the drug dealer with a gun, according to charging documents.
He was charged in state court with attempted murder, a first-degree felony, in the Christmas assault, but the case was dismissed when the federal charges were filed.
West Jordan killings
Carmona was scheduled to be sentenced for aggravated murder, a first-degree felony, on Monday in a 3rd District Court case after pleading guilty to one of three aggravated murder charges filed against him — but his attorney asked for a delay. Andrea Martinez cited a letter Carmona sent to the judge asking to withdraw his plea, along with the new federal charges.
In his letter, Carmona said he was coerced into entering the plea and was lied to, because he understood he would be in a juvenile court facility until he was 25 and he is already in the Utah State Prison.
Based on the federal indictment, Carmona "attacked and stabbed" a member of a rival gang in the Utah State Prison on May 7, which it called "attempted murder."
Deputy Salt Lake County attorney Vincent Meister said Carmona could have stayed in the juvenile system "if his behavior was appropriate." He said the federal indictment would not affect the sentence in the state case.
Martinez said she will decide whether to file a motion officially asking for Carmona's plea to be withdrawn by the beginning of August, and a hearing was set for either sentencing or to argue that motion on Oct. 3.
She said Carmona was not aware of the federal indictment until she told him about it ahead of Monday's hearing. It lists his guilty plea to the murder of Ali as a "special sentencing factor," but does not charge him related to it or list the other two deaths he was initially charged with. In his plea statement, Carmona said one of the other individuals charged fired the shots that killed Ayash Mohamed, 18, and Mohamed Mohamed, 20.
Police said at least 27 shots were fired from multiple guns. Each of the three victims was a gang member in a rival gang and lived in Millcreek.
The federal indictment officially charges Carmona with assault and attempted murder for alleged crimes associated with the prison incident.
New defendants
Gleave is said to have been a former "primo" in the Florencia 13 organization, meaning he was, for a time, the direct conduit between the gang and incarcerated members of the Surenos organization and the Mexican Mafia, court documents state.
According to charges, Gleave and Mendoza beat and stabbed a man in November 2017. Mendoza was Florencia's vice president and aided in enforcing the organization's rules and "disciplinary punishments" of members, charging documents state.
Gleave also conspired with Medina-Sahagun, Florencia's president, who presided over a higher level of gang members, to "straw purchase" firearms, or buy guns on behalf of others, in November 2022.
In 2024, a gang member robbed a person at gunpoint, allegedly at the instruction of Gleave.
Mendoza has gotten in several fights with rival gangs in 2019, 2022, and 2023. He and Catemaxca-Trujillo face charges of racketeering-related attempted murder and discharge of a firearm to further a violent crime for a June 9, 2023, incident with rival gangs Brownside and 18th Street.
According to charges, Catemaxca-Trujillo is also accused of kidnapping a person and robbing them with a dangerous weapon in March 2020.
These new defendants appeared in court on June 13, while Carmona is scheduled for his first hearing on Thursday. Each of the defendants is scheduled for a hearing on Aug. 11.
