Prosecutors: Ogden man shot because of text message
Jonathan Delgado, 32, is charged with murder and obstruction of justice in the Dec. 30, 2016 shooting death of Steven Snider.
Jonathan Delgado
OGDEN — Weber County prosecutors laid out their theory in court Monday that Steven Snider of Ogden was shot to death on Dec. 30, 2016, because of a text message.
On that date, officers were conducting a traffic stop in the area of 27th Street and Adams Avenue when they heard a gunshot, Weber County prosecutor Branden Miles told the full courtroom. They saw Snider laying on the snow-covered ground and another man standing over him, yelling. When the man saw the officers he put up his hands and ran back inside the apartment complex.
Snider died at the scene.
RELATED: Ogden shooting victim Steven Snider remembered as true friend, despite troubles
The man police saw with his hands up, Agustin Gil, 27, eventually surrendered to the police and cooperated with questioning, prosecutors said. Meanwhile, Jonathan Delgado, 32, the man prosecutors say was the shooter, remained barricaded in the apartment complex. SWAT was called to the scene and Delgado eventually surrendered without further incident.
In Monday’s preliminary hearing before Second District Judge Scott Hadley, prosecutors Miles, Letitia Toombs and Rachel Snow called six witnesses, including several Ogden law enforcement officers, to prove probable cause against Delgado. Delgado is charged with murder, a first-degree felony, and obstructing justice, a second-degree felony.
Story continues below image.
Photo supplied, http://didericksenmemorial.blogspot.com/
Steven Snider was shot to death on Dec. 30, 2016, one day after his 37th birthday.
On the morning of the day of the murder, Gil testified, he was awoken by his sister, who told him she’d received a text that angered her. She said Snider, who Gil knew from a previous job they worked together, had texted her something about giving her a couple hundred dollars to sleep with him.
“She told me to leave it alone, but, you know, that’s my sister,” Gil said.
Gil worked with Delgado, and Delgado was Gil’s ride that morning. After working most of the day, Gil said he and Delgado left together, picked up a couple bottles at a liquor store and drove to Gil’s grandmother’s house to drink with other family members.
Then Delgado allegedly asked if Gil could get him some methamphetamine. Gil knew his neighbor in the apartment across the hall, Richard Adams, likely had meth. Snider also lived in the apartment with Adams.
Gil said that he and Delgado went to Adams’ apartment, and as Delgado and Adams smoked, Gil talked about the texts Snider had sent to his sister.
“Jonathan was right there, but I thought he was minding his own business,” Gil testified.
When Snider came home, Gil said he answered the door and confronted Snider about the texts, which Snider denied sending. Then all of the sudden, Snider turned and ran from the apartment, down the stairs, and Gil chased him. As they scuffled on the stairs, Snider grabbed Gil’s shirt, ripping it.
Gil testified that Snider slipped and fell on the ice just outside the door of the apartment building, and Gil took his ripped shirt off and started whipping Snider with it. Then, he said, he heard “a big ol’ echo sound, a loud boom. It was a gunshot,” he testified.
Adams, Snider’s friend, also testified at Monday’s hearing. He said that after Snider, Gil and Delgado ran out of his apartment, he heard a “big pop.” He went to the hallway and came face-to-face with Delgado, coming back up the stairs. “He had a pistol in his right hand,” Adams said.
That pistol was later recovered from the toilet tank in Adams’ apartment, prosecutors said. Crime scene investigator Paul Rimmasch testified that a latent fingerprint on the toilet tank was consistent with Delgado’s.
The lead detective in the case, Travis Kearl, said that examinations of Delgado’s cell phone records revealed phone numbers of people he’d called during the standoff with SWAT. One such witness, when interviewed, told police that Delgado allegedly said he’d shot somebody and needed help. That friend drove to the scene, saw the building surrounded by police, and advised Delgado, “You’re screwed,” according to Kearl.
Another text from Delgado read, “Yo am going to jail bail me out,” Kearl said.
Delgado’s attorney, Michael Bouwhuis, kept his cross-examinations of witnesses and his closing statement brief, as is to be expected in a preliminary hearing, where the burden of probable cause is on the prosecution.
“There are a number of issues that have come to light regarding evidence, regarding witnesses,” Bouwhuis told the court. He said those issues would be “more impactful at trial” and that he may move to suppress some of the state’s evidence.
Hadley ruled that the prosecution proved the case trial-worthy, and scheduled jury selection for Feb. 2, 2018.
