Jurors find Lincoln Park defendant guilty of second-degree murder

Dec. 5—CHEYENNE — A week to the day after they were first selected, a jury found Johnny Munoz guilty of second-degree murder early Tuesday afternoon.

Munoz was initially charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. On both charges, the jury found Munoz not guilty.

Deliberation began Monday evening, when both the state and Munoz's defense concluded their closing statements.

The jury deliberated for more than six hours total, spending two-and-a-half hours deliberating before leaving the courtroom Monday night. They continued their process at 9 a.m. Tuesday, according to Laramie County District Judge Catherine R. Rogers, and reached a verdict around 1 p.m.

The verdict concluded an often emotional trial that began on Nov. 28. It was marked by emotional testimony from several close friends of BayLee Carabajal-Clark, the 15-year-old girl who was killed in Lincoln Park on April 30.

During their testimony, many people described the chaos that erupted at Lincoln Park that night. Several officers and detectives with the Cheyenne Police Department were also called to testify during the trial.

By their accounts, several CPD officers were called to the scene and had trouble sorting out the event. The defense in the trial noted that one officer described the scene of Carabajal-Clark's shooting as a "s--- show."

Throughout the trial, the state argued that the case was a matter of "transferred intent," when the intent of one person to kill or harm another is unintentionally inflicted on a third-party.

Closing arguments

Evidence presented by both sides corroborated the claim that Carabajal-Clark was likely not the intended target of the shooting. Laramie County assistant district attorney William Edelman said that, even though she was not the intended target, that didn't negate the murder charge or the conspiracy charge.

In his closing argument, Edelman noted that "common sense" would lead one to believe that Munoz was guilty, given the evidence.

"There is not a sign on the door, nor is there a sign on the table of the jury room, that says, 'Park your common sense here,'" he told the jury Monday afternoon.

During his summation, Edelman played two videos previously shown during the trial. In one, a doorbell camera captures the sound of around 20 gunshots. In another, Edelman showed a video from CPD Officer Robert Wingeleth, who pulled over Julian Espinoza, who's charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in connection with the incident.

Espinoza was driving Munoz and three others at the time of the shooting, and was observed heading away from Lincoln Park when he was pulled over.

Law enforcement officials are still unsure what exactly happened, but Wingeleth can be seen letting the vehicle go, instructing them to "go home."

"It is against that backdrop that the CPD begins its investigation into what transpired at Lincoln Park," Edelman said after replaying the video.

He added that the evidence from witnesses all corroborated the vehicle slowing down by he park, someone shooting at the young people gathered there and driving off.

Edelman, on the issue of transferred intent, said that Munoz "probably didn't intend to kill BayLee," but added that "in Wyoming, that doesn't matter."

The evidence that the shooting was a targeted hit-and-run gone wrong came from a statement to law enforcement by the victim's cousin, Joey Carabajal Jr., that he was likely the target of the attack. The state said he tried to tie the shooting to Munoz being stabbed at South High School in a prior incident, but the defense rebuked that claim by saying that the attack was unrelated and carried out by someone else.

"When you sort through all (the evidence)," Edelman said at the end of his closing remarks, "there will only be one verdict that you can reach."

Munoz's defense leaned heavily on evidence that people in the park with Carabajal-Clark were carrying guns, a fact not noted by lead detectives in early paperwork about the case. They also rested on the fact that no guns, from Munoz or the people at Lincoln Park, were ever recovered by detectives.

"The state has painted a very simple picture," Patricia Bennett, one of Munoz's lawyers said in her closing statement. "But, they have left out a whole lot of things."

She said that law enforcement officers were dealing with traumatized teenagers during their investigation. She said the teens "didn't want to tell the adults that were questioning them the whole story."

"That scene was chaos," she said of the crime scene in the wake of the shooting. Bennett said law enforcement testimony showed that the scene was "open and uncontained," with officers taking 45 minutes to block off Seventh Street by the park.

She also mentioned that Wingeleth was questioned by other officers for letting the vehicle go, saying that "both rookies and experienced officers made mistakes."

She also leaned on audio from interviews made by detectives in the case. In one interview, Carabajal-Clark's brother, Zachary Clark, told detectives "everyone" had a gun at Lincoln Park that night.

The defense used that information to argue that the investigation failed by not finding any weapons from either party, or pursuing the angle of guns in Lincoln Park earlier. She said one person at the park, who told detectives he had a gun that night, led law enforcement on a "wild goose chase" for a murder weapon.

She boiled the physical evidence down to a dispute over bullets, given the fact that no relevant guns were obtained. She said that the state's evidence tying Munoz to the case was tenuous. Law enforcement recovered .380 full metal jacket bullets in the vehicle Munoz was in, but Carabajal-Clark was killed with a .380 hollow point bullet. Bennett and the defense used this to say that there wasn't enough evidence to tie Munoz directly to the victim's death.

Building on that evidence, Bennett pointed to interviews with several people at the park that expressed concern that Carabajal-Clark could have been killed by someone in her own party that night. She matched several witness accounts with a mockup of where Carabajal-Clark was located within the park. With that information, and relying on testimony about where the shots came from, Bennett said that the victim could have only been shot in the face if it was by someone in her party.

"The kids told you who shot BayLee Carabajal-Clark," she said. "BayLee was shot by one of her own. That's the only thing that makes sense."

Bond and sentencing

After the jury's verdict was read Tuesday, court officials polled every juror to ensure that they agreed with the verdict as listed. All jurors agreed. Munoz was informed that he had 30 days to appeal the verdict and that he would be remanded to the custody of Laramie County Sheriff's deputies pending completion of a pre-sentence investigation report and sentencing.

Given that the trial was over, Rogers said that Munoz's bond would no longer apply. Bennett requested a new bond to be set at $100,000 cash or commercial. Rogers said that the rules surrounding bond, unless extreme circumstances apply, are mostly for people who have not been convicted yet and that they change when someone is found guilty of a crime.

"Bond has expired, and he should be held in custody pending sentencing," Rogers said.

Edelman added that, for a bond to apply, the defense would have the burden of proof to show that Munoz was not a danger the community, and asked the court to set a bond.

Munoz will be sentenced after the completion of a pre-sentence investigation report by the Wyoming Department of Corrections.

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Samir Knox is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's criminal justice and public safety reporter. He can be reached by email at sknox@wyomingnews.com or by phone at 307-633-3152. Follow him on Twitter at @bySamirKnox.