Victim of carjacking, threatened with life, testifies against Meagan Grunwald
Meagan Grunwald who is charged as an accomplice in a shooting spree that killed one police officer and wounded another on January 30, 2014 enters Judge Darold McDade's courtroom in Provo, Utah, on Thursday, April 30, 2015.
Al Hartmann | The Salt Lake Tribune Utah County Sheriff Deputy Gregory Sherwood points to his head as he testifies in the Meagan Grunwald trial in Provo, Utah, on Thursday, April 30, 2015. She is charged as an accomplice in a shooting spree that killed one police officer and wounded Sherwood on January 30, 2014. Sherwood was shot in the head and is unable to perform his regular duties as a deputy due to balance and communications problems. He is unable to drive a car due to his disability from the shooting but still works in selected jobs with the department.
PROVO – She was talking on the phone with her Realtor when she saw a woman standing in the middle of the road, flagging her down, for what she thought was a wreck.
“When I pulled off to the side, I put my car in park… and that’s when I saw Jose — the other guy,” said Chetney Williams, who said her car was hijacked on Jan. 30, 2014, in a crime spree involving Meagan Grunwald and Jose Angel Garcia-Juaregui.
Williams and several others delivered emotional testimonies in Fourth District Court Thursday in the second day of Grunwald’s trial. Grunwald is charged with murder as an accomplice to the killing of Sgt. Cory Wride of the Utah County Sheriff’s Office. She also is charged with about a dozen other charges, one of which is a first-degree felony charge for aggravated robbery, which stems from this carjacking incident.
Williams saw Grunwald’s wrecked Toyota Tundra near the 222 southbound offramp on Interstate 15 and thought she’d just wrecked her car. She pulled up to Grunwald and Garcia-Juaregui walked up to the driver’s side of the car and pointed a gun at Williams’s chest.
“I didn’t take my eyes off of him after I saw that gun… He screamed ‘Get out! Get out!’ and I said, can I please get my baby?” Williams said through tears and tapered breaths.
Her friend Kelly Ballow pulled up behind her and he said that she barely got the baby out before Grunwald and Garcia-Juaregui drove off in the stolen car.
“It was close to not getting the baby out before they pulled away,” he said in court.
Williams’s vehicle was totaled after the chase.
Before Williams’s car was stolen from her, Garcia-Juaregui shot at several other cars, according to witness testimonies. Troy Pace and Joey Lunt had driven their car near the intersection where Grunwald and Garcia-Juaregui exited the Tundra and their car was hit once. Donavan Steele was at the same intersection that day, and his car was hit with two shots.
“He had his gun pointed at me… He was running toward me,” Steele said.
Garcia-Juaregui shot out the tires of a semi-trailer truck on I-15 just before the carjacking. The truck driver was noticeably rattled as he testified in court.
“Since this, I had to take a long look at my own life and realize being gone wasn’t worth it to me. This made me realize I didn’t want to be gone. I wanted to be home with my family,” said Alonzo Van Tassell, the truck driver. Van Tassell no longer runs a trucking business after the incident.
After Grunwald and Garcia-Juaregui stole Williams’s car, they continued fleeing the scene and again encountered police officers. One of the officers, Chief Deputy Al Taylor of the Juab County Sheriff’s Deparment, testified for more than two hours as to what he saw from the events that day.
Taylor said he and other officers from various agencies, including Jeff Blankenagel of the Utah Highway Patrol, pursued Grunwald and Garcia-Juaregui at speeds of more than 100 mph both before and after the carjacking. The two suspects had to ditch the Tundra because a spike strip destroyed its tires.
Then after the carjacking, another set of spike strips was laid and popped the two driver’s side tires of the vehicle. Eventually, one wheel fell off and the car careened into a median before heading into oncoming traffic, sideswiping one vehicle.
Garcia-Juaregui and other officers exchanged gunfire until he went down, sustaining a gunshot wound to the forehead, Taylor said.
Taylor said Grunwald then screamed angrily at the officers, “You shot him in the head!”
Taylor pinned Garcia-Juaregui down, yet he struggled to be handcuffed, and he still had the gun in hand. Once the gun had been knocked out his possession and he was apprehended, Taylor tried to perform medical assistance, before Garcia-Juaregui said, “Why don’t you let me kiss my girlfriend with my last dying breath?”
Taylor admitted to defense attorney Dean Zabriskie that he was the only one who heard Garcia-Juaregui say that Grunwald was his girlfriend. A key part of the defense’s stance is that the two were not romantically involved.
Taylor also said Grunwald followed Garcia-Juaregui during the shootout. Zabriskie asked if he thought she was confused, but Taylor said he believes Grunwald knew what she was doing when she chased after Garcia-Juaregui.
“If someone was involved in that, there’s plenty of opportunity to get away from that. You wouldn’t think they’d continue to follow at a distance that person,” Taylor said. “In my opinion, as soon as the law enforcement comes up and they could run to safety, they would.”
Zabriskie continued to prod the question, and said that hypothetically, Grunwald may have been following him for other reasons. But Taylor stood firm in his opinion that she willingly followed him.
Grunwald was in the courtroom, and watching the police dash cam footage noticeably upset her.
“I thought she was part of it, I thought she was part of the whole thing,” Taylor said, denying that Grunwald could’ve been held against her will.
Testimonies will continue on Friday.
Follow @hansonherald for live updates from the courtroom throughout the trial.
