OGDEN — A jury on Monday found Keshaun Puente guilty of first-degree felony murder in the June 13, 2018, shooting death of Denero Snider in an Ogden apartment parking lot.

Jurors deliberated for about four hours before returning the verdict against the 24-year-old Ogden man, who could be sentenced to up to life in prison. They also convicted him of three first-degree felony firearms charges.

Puente took the stand Monday morning, denying he shot the 23-year-old Snider and saying he saw “two or three other people” approach the victim before he heard arguing and shots.

Prosecutors alleged Puente argued with Snider in a lot in the 600 block of 23rd Street and shot him four times with a .40 caliber handgun, then jumped into a car driven by his 17-year-old girlfriend and the couple drove to Las Vegas.

Defense attorneys argued during the four-day trial before 2nd District Judge Jennifer Valencia that circumstantial evidence was undermined by inconsistencies in witnesses’ testimony and that the prosecution had no DNA or fingerprint evidence or identification of Puente as the shooter.

Several tree-trimming workers, an apartment resident, a woman across the street and two people in a car passing by testified they either saw the shooting or watched a Black man jump into a silver Hyundai Veloster with a missing front bumper and be driven away.

In closing arguments, prosecutor Branden Miles of the Weber County Attorney’s Office acknowledged that none of nine witnesses who saw the shooting or the man jumping into the Hyundai could identify Puente in a police photo lineup.

But he said several of the witnesses were certain that the shooter got into the Hyundai, and much evidence connected Puente to being in the Hyundai. While Puente’s former girlfriend said she did not see the shooting, she testified that Puente got into the car after she heard shots.

Defense attorney Grant Morrison asked Puente if he shot Snider.

“Hell, no,” he said. “No, I did not.”

Puente said he talked to Snider briefly in the parking lot while he was waiting for the girlfriend to pick him up. He said he waved at Snider, a longtime friend, according to Puente, and Snider said, “What’s up, ugly?” It was not a derogatory reference, Puente said. “Anybody that knows him, it’s just a joke,” Puente said.

He said he told Snider goodbye and then saw “two or three people” approaching on a sidewalk. He said he was near the Hyundai, which had just arrived, when he heard arguing. “I was going to go over there and help him … but then I heard shots” and he and the girlfriend drove away.

“You didn’t go run and help him?” Miles asked. “I didn’t know if it was him shooting or if he had got shot,” Puente said.

Asked by Miles why he did not call police, Puente said, “I don’t report things.”

The prosecutor asked him why he gave a false name to Nevada police when he was pulled over there several months later. “Everything that I’ve seen, young Black men get convicted of things they are later found innocent of,” he said. “Police shoot young Black men and get away with it all the time. I was scared to go to jail for something I didn’t do.”

In his closing argument, Miles said the tree cutters and others testified they saw Snider and one man arguing, “not four, not five.”

Referring to Puente’s testimony that he saw one of the other people “jump over a fence” as the Hyundai was driving away, Miles said: “No one else saw some dude jumping over a fence. Nobody. Because it didn’t happen.”

Miles said Puente “executed Denero in broad daylight. He was a one-man firing squad that day.”

Morrison said evidence presented against Puente did not meet the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt. He said there was no fingerprint or DNA evidence, a gun never was found and no witnesses could identify Puente.

While no one could identify Puente in a photo lineup, “how odd” it was that they were certain the shooter got into the Hyundai, the attorney said.

Morrison said there was no ongoing antagonism between Puente and Snider and that there was no record of recent communications between the two. Police came up empty on eight search warrants in the Puente investigation, Morrison said.

“Bottom line is, there is no direct evidence, and the circumstantial evidence is full of inconsistencies,” he said.

Sentencing was set for Jan. 4.

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