Meagan Grunwald, who was 17 when the crime happened, told the jury formed of two men and six women that she was too afraid to stop driving. Her boyfriend, 27-year-old Jose Angel Garcia-Jauregui, turned the gun and threatened to kill her and her loved ones. As the the teenager’s boyfriend finally got out of the stolen car, both him and Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Cory Wride were killed in the shoot-out. The jury found the girl who was desperately in love with her much older boyfriend guilty.
The girl won’t get the death penalty because she was not 18 when it all happened. As her mother, Tori Grunwald, heard the sentence she bursted into tears and was helped out of the courtroom. Nannette Wride, Cory Wride’s widow, is pleased with the verdict and said the following in a statement: “The justice system that Cory believed in has served us well… While there are no winners in this whole thing and it’s really sad as far as everyone is concerned, we are very grateful for the attorneys that spent endless hours and the heroes that brought that thin blue line down on Meagan and Jose Garcia, and the witnesses that came forward with such great courage. Justice and truth prevailed.”
