Kenyatta Winston was 16 years old when he was shot in the back of the head and left to rot in a shallow grave.
That he was murdered has never been a question. On Tuesday, prosecutors pointed to Frank Paul Reyos as the man who shot and killed Winston — an act of vengeance, they said, for leaving Reyos alone in the heat of battle.
But defense attorneys said Tuesday there isn't a shred of evidence to prove the prosecutors' story except the testimony of a woman whose reliability they urged jurors to question.
A panel of six women and four men will spend the next several days trying to decide how Winston wound up being found dead in a ditch on Aug. 29, 2012.
Reyos, 32, is charged in 3rd District Court with first-degree felony aggravated murder and second-degree felony possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person in connection with the Aug. 26, 2012, slaying of the Salt Lake City teen. If convicted, he could spend up to life in prison.
In opening statements Tuesday, prosecutors said Winston knew Reyos. He was "kind of dating" his niece. He was close with several members of his family.
Days before he was killed, Winston got a text from Shelby Reed, the defendant's niece, saying she was being harassed at a party, prosecutor Bradford Cooley said. Winston and Reyos went to intervene.
Harsh words quickly escalated to violence as Reyos and Winston began exchanging gunfire with several of the men at the party, Cooley said. But when the bullets began flying, Winston lost his nerve.
He ran, Cooley said, leaving Reyos to be beaten by a crowd.
"There needed to be a consequence for Kenyatta deserting him, for leaving the battlefield," Cooley said.
That consequence, the prosecution said, would be death.
Days later, Cooley said, Reyos shot Winston execution style in the back of the head.
Natasha Alvarado, 35, allegedly witnessed the shooting. Though she didn't see it happen, prosecutors said, she knew. When she dodged questions or lied to police later, prosecutors said, it was because she was afraid.
"No one wanted to be the person pointing the finger at Frank Reyos," Cooley said.
But defense attorneys contended Tuesday that the story Alvarado told police changed over time. This latest version, Michael Misner said, is only what will help Alvarado save herself — and keep her from returning to lockup.
"[Police] tell her you can choose to be a suspect or a witness — immediately, she says 'I don't want to be a witness,' but they tell her that if you're a suspect, you can kiss your life goodbye. Over," Misner told the jury. "She then says, 'I want to be a witness.' That will lead to the story that she's telling."
Misner told the jury that the state's case is weak, relying almost exclusively on Alvarado's testimony.
"There are no bullets, no shells, no fingerprints, no footprints, no physical evidence in this case," Misner said. "There is no other evidence to link Frank Reyos to this murder. There's all kinds of people saying things, but that's the only evidence."
On Aug. 26, 2012, Alvarado, Reyos and David Angel Montes — who was driving a borrowed car — took Winston to a vacant Sugar House lot, near 1120 E. Crandall Ave. (about 2900 South), according to prosecutors.
Montes and Alvarado waited in the car while Reyos and Winston walked to the secluded area where the teen's body was found by a construction worker three days later, according to charges.
Alvarado heard shots, but by the time she turned around, prosecutors said, she could only see Reyos returning to the vhicle.
An autopsy shows that Winston died from a single bullet that entered the back of his skull.
Montes, 23, also was initially charged with Winston's murder. But prosecutors last year amended his charge to one count of second-degree felony obstructing justice. He is set for a scheduling hearing on Oct. 27.
Both Montes and Reyos participated in disposing of the gun, and Montes was later seen wearing a pair of Winston's shoes, charges state.
At the time of the shooting, Reyos was on parole for a 2001 robbery.
The victim's mother, Valarie Winston, who sat in the courtroom Tuesday as images of her son's body flashed across a screen, has said that her son fell in with the wrong crowd in junior high: Juvenile court records show that since May 2010, he had seven delinquency offenses, including theft of a firearm and shoplifting.
But when Kenyatta Winston was released from detention in June 2012, he vowed it wouldn't happen again, his mother said.
Alvarado was also arrested and charged with second-degree felony obstructing justice in connection with the case for allegedly cleaning a motel room where she, Winston and others had been staying and doing drugs.
Alvarado allegedly admitted to police that after she learned Winston had been killed, she cleaned the motel room to destroy any evidence linking the victim to the room and to them.
In January 2013, the case against Alvarado was dismissed without prejudice, meaning it can be refiled.
Reed, 19, was also charged for helping to clean the motel room. The woman pleaded guilty last year to a reduced misdemeanor count of attempted obstructing justice and was sentenced to probation and six months in jail.
The car believed to have been used in the shooting belonged to Jessica Reyos, Reed's mother and the defendant's sister. She pleaded guilty alongside her daughter to a misdemeanor charge of providing false statements to law enforcement officials.Reyos feigned ignorance and gave a fake name when detectives asked her for the name of the man to whom she had lent her car — even though detectives found what they presumed to be blood in the car.
She was sentenced to six months of probation.
mlang@sltrib.com
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