Meagan Grunwald won't get a new trial in officer's death, judge says

Meagan Grunwald won't get a new trial in officer's death, judge says

(Chris Detrick/Pool photo/File)


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PROVO — A judge has denied requests for a new trial for a woman convicted in the shooting death of a Utah County sheriff's sergeant and the attempted murder of a sheriff's deputy when she was 17 years old.

Attorneys for Meagan Grunwald, now 19, argued in a motion filed after Grunwald was convicted last year that 4th District Judge Darold McDade's remarks at sentencing showed he was biased throughout the proceedings.

Grunwald was the getaway driver on Jan. 30, 2014, as her boyfriend, Jose Angel Garcia-Juaregui, fired out her pickup truck's windows and killed Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Cory Wride as he sat in his parked vehicle and gravely wounded deputy Greg Sherwood when he attempted to pursue them. Garcia was killed when the chase ended in a shootout with police.

Prosecutors claimed Grunwald was a willing accomplice in the crime spree, making no effort to leave her boyfriend before he died in a shootout with officers, while Grunwald testified she obeyed the older man's commands under threats that he would kill her and her family if she didn't.

McDade, who had presided over criminal proceedings for the deceased Garcia, told Grunwald at her sentencing he doubted she was as oblivious as she claimed about her boyfriend's criminal history and violent nature. In his ruling filed Tuesday, McDade cited a ruling by 4th District Judge David Mortensen, who had considered a motion to disqualify McDade from the case.

Mortensen found in September that McDade's comments at sentencing had been taken out of context and that Grunwald's attorneys "either knew or should have known that judge McDade was involved in Jose Garcia's earlier cases." That association, Mortensen said, did not prevent McDade from impartially considering the case.

McDade ruled there was no evidence of bias in the trial or pretrial proceedings.

Grunwald was found guilty in May 2015 of aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder in the shootings, as well as nine related charges. She was ordered to spend at least 30 years and up to life in prison, including sentences of 25 years to life for aggravated murder and a consecutive sentence of five years to life for aggravated robbery, with sentences for the additional charges running concurrently.

The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole has set a tentative date for Grunwald's first parole hearing for July 1, 2042.

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McKenzie Romero

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