Theresa Toledo and family members addressed reporters after the teen's court hearing on Tuesday. Photo: Kelli Pierce
SALT LAKE CITY — The 15-year-old boy charged with manslaughter for the shooting death of his stepbrother in Kearns has always said it was an accident. But the victim’s mother is challenging that claim.
He maintains he and 16-year-old Jerrad Jacobsen were playing around with a gun at the family’s home on 5400 South on the morning of March 18, 2019, when it went off.
Jacobsen’s mother and others are not buying it, and they want the boy charged with murder.
“You don’t wait until their back is turned and shoot ’em in the back of the head. And then clean yourself up, change your clothes, and then wake everybody up, calmly, saying my son accidentally shot himself,” Theresa Toledo said outside the courthouse after the hearing Tuesday in Salt Lake City.
Toledo also expressed frustration with police, who she feels are not looking at the suspect’s Snapchat, where she thinks the murder was planned.
“There’s messages that he’s given people, that I’ve heard, the morning of, asking, ‘How do I clean up something I don’t want nobody to find out about,'” she said.
Toledo claims the suspect also threatened other people just after her son’s death.
Police have not commented on their investigation.
A judge hearing the case ordered the suspect to remain in juvenile detention at least until the next hearing on May 13.