SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Court of Appeals has upheld a murder conviction for a man who killed another man in an Ogden apartment complex parking lot in 2018.
Keshaun Mykel Puente was found guilty in December 2021 of murder and three counts of felony discharge of a firearm causing serious injury, first-degree felonies. He was sentenced to 16 years to life in prison for murder, and five years to life for each of the firearm charges by 2nd District Judge Jennifer Valencia.
She ordered the sentences to run concurrent, and suggested to Adult Probation and Parole that he serve a total of 22 years.
Puente, 27, claimed that his right to a speedy trial was violated and that his attorney was not effective, but the appellate court did not agree.
He was not charged until about five months after Denero Snyder, 23, was shot and killed in a parking lot at 630 23rd Street in Ogden on June 13, 2018. Puente was arrested in Nevada in January 2019.
Puente and Snyder got into an argument in an apartment complex parking lot, and Puente walked to a car but was followed by Snyder. Puente got out of the car, pulled out a gun and fired several shots “at almost point-blank range” before driving away with his 17-year-old girlfriend, according to charging documents.
The girlfriend told officers she had heard three shots and claimed she and Puente were chased by another vehicle after the shooting. She said they drove to Las Vegas and had already been planning to go there on a vacation.
In denying his appeal, the appellate court pointed out multiple times that he caused a delay in his case, along with the COVID-19 pandemic which suspended jury trials and led to the cancellation of his trial in both November 2020 and April 2021.
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