Third gunman sentenced in deadly shooting at Weber County street racing competition

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Christian Ruiz, involved in a deadly 2025 Weber County shooting, was sentenced to one to 15 years imprisonment for manslaughter.
He was the last of three gunmen to be sentenced in the incident, which occurred at a clandestine street-racing event.
Jesus Cuadras Garcia, 22, died from injuries sustained in the incident, and two others were injured.

OGDEN — An Ogden man who was a juvenile at the time of a deadly shooting last year in western Weber County has been sentenced to at least a year in prison for manslaughter in connection with the incident.

Christian Elias Antonio Ruiz was one of three gunmen in last year's incident, which occurred during a clandestine street-racing competition. The shooting left 22-year-old Jesus Cuadras Garcia dead and two others with injuries. Ruiz was the last suspect to be sentenced.

Ruiz, who was 17 when the incident occurred Aug. 31, 2025, originally faced a charge of murder, a first-degree felony, but that was reduced to manslaughter, a second-degree felony, as part of a plea deal in August with the Weber County Attorney's Office.

Ruiz, now 18, was charged as an adult, and Judge Matthew Hansen on Monday sentenced him to one to 15 years' imprisonment on the charge, to be served in the Utah State Prison.

Hansen also sentenced Ruiz to zero to five years' imprisonment on each of two additional counts: felony discharge of a firearm and possession of a dangerous weapon by a minor, both third-degree felonies. Those sentences will run concurrently with each other but consecutive to the manslaughter sentence.

Three other charges Ruiz faced were dismissed: additional counts of felony discharge of a firearm and possession of a weapon by a minor, as well as a second-degree felony count of obstruction of justice.

According to court documents in the various cases that came out of the shooting, two females were fighting when three people, including Ruiz, Michael Robles Gaisbauer and a teen who was 15 years old at the time, started firing weapons, leading to Garcia's death and the other injuries. The street race was taking place along 9350 West just north of 900 South in rural Weber County and had drawn a large, boisterous crowd.

According to the narrative in Ruiz's plea deal, he "fired his gun multiple times" during the incident. In a letter he wrote to Hansen ahead of his sentencing, he expressed regret over the turn of events.

"I am so deeply sorry for the victim and the victim's family. I know I will never be able to pay them back or get forgiveness from the family or truly myself," he wrote. "I am ashamed of what I did and I hope and pray for the family that God may bless their souls and bring them prosperity and well-being."

In May, Robles was sentenced to one to five years' imprisonment for manslaughter, a third-degree felony. He was also sentenced to three to five years' imprisonment on each of eight counts of felony discharge of a weapon, a third-degree felony. The felony discharge terms are to run concurrently to each other but consecutive to the manslaughter sentence.

The suspect who was 15 years old when the incident occurred was sentenced last April to juvenile detention until he's 25. He was adjudicated in Second Juvenile Court in Ogden after admitting to murder, a first-degree felony, and possession of a firearm by a restricted person, a second-degree felony.

Eli Keddington, of Centerville, pleaded guilty late last year to attempted obstruction of justice, a third-degree felony, in the case and was sentenced to the time he had already served.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.