Teen to stand trial in slaying

The 14-year-old — a fairly tall, broad-shouldered, husky youth wearing a neon orange jail shirt and jeans — chewed gum and appeared expressionless throughout most of Monday's hearing.

His family, seated on one side of the courtroom, wept when the judge ordered the teen to stand trial in an aggravated murder case.

Whether that trial is in juvenile court or whether the boy will be tried as an adult will be determined at a certification hearing Sept. 29.

Meanwhile, the family of the victim, JoJo Brandstatt, cried as they heard descriptions of how the 18-year-old was marched up the hill of a West Valley City golf course at gunpoint and shot dead.

Three adults already are headed to trial on the same charges — aggravated murder, two counts of aggravated kidnapping and five counts of aggravated robbery, all first-degree felonies, and will be arraigned Aug. 3. They are: Jeremiah H. Williamson, 28, Spencer Isaiah Cater, 18, and Sharise O. Malaga, 19.

Last week, a recording was played in court in which the 14-year-old he insisted he was high on marijuana and scared when he twice shot Brandstatt on Feb. 5. The boy said he was coerced into doing the shooting by the older defendants in the case.

However, other evidence suggests the youth was the ringleader behind a daylong crime spree in which one man claims he was kidnapped and forced to try to rob three convenience stores, and Brandstatt ultimately was slain.

A key witness, Greg Brown, 19, took the stand and told how he had been kidnapped by the others and forced into a car with them at gunpoint. Brown said he was robbed of drugs, cash and an iPod.

Brown also has said Brandstatt was kidnapped and robbed in a similar fashion, but Brown said the 14-year-old was enraged with Brandstatt because Brandstatt got into the vehicle wearing red — the color of a rival gang.

Brown recounted that he made as many as 60 calls to 10 or 15 people in a futile attempt to get money for his alleged captors, who said they would not kill him if he could raise $2,000. He came up with the convenience store robbery idea as an alternative. Brown has been granted immunity for his testimony, but he said in court he has not been offered any deals in the case.