Man fired into Ogden wedding crowd, says witness in double murder trial

OGDEN — Sarah Valencia began to sob on the witness stand Thursday as she recalled the day her friend, Sabrina Prieto, was killed.

It was Aug. 5, 2007, and the two women had just emerged from an Ogden home where friends were celebrating a wedding. Then a sport utility vehicle rolled slowly along 1050 North, Valencia testified, and a man began to shoot at them from the passenger side window.

Valencia, 24, said she grabbed Prieto's arm and ran for the house, but she couldn't hold on to the 22-year-old.

"When I looked over, I seen her fall," Valencia said, breaking into tears. "I thought maybe she had tripped. She didn't trip. She had got shot."

Prieto and Resendo Nava Nevarez, 29, both died in what prosecutors told jurors was a gang-related shooting carried out by Riqo Mariano Perea. Two other partygoers — Richard Lee Esquival, 26, and Keri Garcia, 24 — were wounded in the incident.

Perea went on trial Thursday on two counts of aggravated murder and two counts of attempted murder, all first-degree felonies, under heightened security in 2nd District Court.

Three Weber County sheriff's deputies brought the 22-year-old defendant into a courtroom whose gallery was divided down the middle by yellow police tape — an effort to keep his family and the families of the victims separated. A fourth deputy prevented anyone from entering the courtroom once the trial began.

The measures are aimed at preventing a violent incident like the brawl that took place inside a courthouse elevator following a January 2008 hearing in the case. Two women suffered minor injuries in the melee.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys told jurors in their opening statements that the August 2007 drive-by shooting was rooted in animosity between two rival gangs. Esquival and Garcia also testified that shortly before the fatal shootings, they heard an argument in front of the home between several people.

"I heard a man say 'This is get-back for Ogden Trece' and he fired two shots," said Esquival, who is currently in jail for failing to appear in court in another case.

Esquival said, upon hearing the gunfire, he ran to the front yard of the home to check on his cousin, Nevarez, and saw most of the people there running into the home. He said a group of people in front of the home crossed the street, got into an SUV and began to drive away.

"They just let loose," he said, describing the shooting that left him with bullet fragments in his shoulder.