Kearns man charged with murder in Halloween party shooting

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — A 20-year-old man is accused of shooting and killing another man last month at a Halloween party on the Wasatch Front.

Jhared Ivan Rodriguez, of Kearns, was charged Monday with first-degree murder in connection to an Oct. 28 shooting in West Valley City, court documents filed in Salt Lake County show.

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According to the charging documents, the shooting happened at a home near 1400 West Parkway Avenue.

Witnesses told police the atmosphere at the party grew tense when Rodriquez started getting angry with another party-goer because of a dispute “over a girl,” the charging documents state.

When one of the party-goer’s friends insulted Rodriguez, he pulled out a gun and started shooting as people ran from the house.

Bullets struck Jesus Puerta Tovar, the documents state. His friend told investigators Rodriguez targeted Tovar, because he said the insult.

Tovar’s friends drove him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy found he’d been shot twice from behind, once in the arm and once in the back.

When police searched Rodriguez’s car, officers found the same type of shell casings recovered from the scene of the shooting, the documents state.

Along with the murder charge, Rodriguez is also facing one second-degree count of felony discharge of a firearm, and six counts of third-degree felony discharge of a firearm.

If convicted of the murder charge, Rodriquez faces between 15 years to life in prison.

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