A Utah teenager convicted for a 50-mile crime spree that left one sheriff's deputy dead and another wounded could be sentenced Wednesday to spend the rest of her life in prison.
Meagan Grunwald, 18, was convicted in May for aggravated murder and other charges from the 2014 shooting, carjacking and chase, according to the Canada Journal.
Prosecutors said during the trial that Grunwald was a willing accomplice of her older boyfriend who was killed in a shootout with officers. Grunwald pleaded not guilty, claiming that her boyfriend, 27-year-old Jose Angel Garcia-Jauregui, forced her at gunpoint to drive through three snowy Utah counties and threatened her family, according to The Huffington Post.
Even though Garcia-Jauregui was the one who actually shot and killed Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Cory Wride, Grunwald was charged and convicted under Utah laws that allow an accomplice to be considered equally culpable of a crime.
In addition to aggravated murder, she was convicted of 10 other counts that included attempted murder, aggravated robbery and use of a controlled substance. She has only been found not guilty on one count of attempted aggravated murder so far.
At best, she will spend 25 years in prison and at worst she could spend the rest of her life in prison without the chance of parole. Grunwald is ineligible for the death penalty because she was 17 when the incident occurred, according to ABC News.
The shootout and chase started when Sgt. Cory Wride happened upon the couple's pickup parked on the side of a highway. Garcia-Jauregui had a warrant out for his arrest and gave the deputy a fake name. When Wride grew suspicious, Garcia-Jauregui stuck a gun out the truck's rear window and shot the deputy as he sat in his police cruiser, according to the New York Daily News.
Prosecutors said Grunwald then drove the couple as they fled, at one point hitting the brakes to give Garcia-Jauregui a better shot at another officer and helping to carjack a vehicle.
Grunwald's lawyer said his client was a terrified girl who had trusted an older, manipulative man.
Attorney Dean Zabriskie has said Grunwald plans to appeal her conviction.
