SALT LAKE CITY – A teenage getaway whose boyfriend shot a sheriff sergeant in 2014 has admitted reducing charges after the Utah Supreme Court dismissed her murder conviction last year.
Meagan Grunwald, 24, pleaded guilty to the 4th Provo District Court earlier this month in killing and seriously assaulting a peace officer, both second-degree crimes.
A jury found her guilty of serious murder in 2015 when Sgt. Des Sheriff of Utah County died. Cory Wride. Grunwald, who was 17 at the time of Wride’s death, was held responsible as an accomplice for the crimes of her friend, 27-year-old Angel Garcia-Juaregui.
She appealed and the Utah Supreme Court rescheduled, in part because incorrect instructions from the jury allowed conviction for reckless acts, but the offense required a higher standard of knowledge and willful behavior.
Grunwald has remained in prison for an ongoing conviction of serious robbery in connection with the car chase. The prosecution carries a sentence of at least five years and up to life behind bars.
She pleaded guilty to the reduced charges on May 18 and admitted that she had helped Garcia-Juaregui by getting her car moving, putting her foot on the brakes, and watching the traffic as he raised a gun to the rear window crawled and fired and Wride killed. Court documents say. It slowed a short time later when Greg Sherwood, the assistant to the Utah County Sheriff, sat right behind the car and fired Garcia-Juaregui again, punching Sherwood in the head and causing life-threatening and permanent injuries.
Grunwald testified in court that she pulled up on State Route 73 that day at Eagle Mountain because she and Garcia-Juaregui had an argument. Wride spotted the truck’s emergency lights and stopped to see if anyone in the truck needed help. Then he returned to his patrol car to look for a fake name Garcia-Juaregui had given him, prosecutors said.
Grunwald testified that her boyfriend told her to step on the brakes, open the rear window and suddenly start shooting.
She is being held in Utah State Prison for one to 15 years for pleading guilty. The sentencing is scheduled for June 21st.
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