A judge on Monday gave a 74-year-old Carbon County man to between 40 and 80 years in prison for trying to gun down his grown niece and nephew over a dispute about money.
Carbon County District Court Judge Dawnessa Snyder also ordered Melvin Bagley to pay nearly $300,000 in restitution, a huge chunk of which consists of his nephew’s two air ambulance trips.
Melvin Bagley had tried to kill his nephew, Marvin “JR” Bagley, and JR’s wife Stephanie on Sept. 3, 2023, by driving his truck to theirs and opening fire on them through his open truck window and theirs.
He shot JR in the face and hand and Stephanie in the shoulder. Then he rammed the couple’s truck repeatedly as they drove away.
The pair escaped by ramming through their own shut gate and barreling onto the road. JR got a state trooper’s attention by waving his bloody hand out his truck window.
“He killed me without killing me,” JR told Carbon County District Court judge Dawnessa Snyder during Melvin’s Monday sentencing hearing. “He took away all my plans and dreams.”
JR was a commercial truck driver prior to the shooting. He and Stephanie had planned to start their own trucking business and expand their small ranch, which they started with three bottle calves, JR told the court.
JR said he expected to be well off as he grew older.
“We went from that to not knowing where my next meal was coming from,” he said.
Now he’s blind in one eye and experiences blurred vision in the other. His wife is traumatized and can’t bear to go out to their ranch property because she “relives the nightmare,” JR said.
Full Responsibility
Melvin takes full responsibility for his actions, Sergio Lemus, Melvin’s public defense attorney, told the court.
“Even to his detriment, he took full responsibility the day of this incident,” said Lemus, pointing to Melvin’s confession early in the investigation.
Lemus pointed to Melvin’s lack of criminal history, saying it’s the first time the man has been incarcerated.
Lemus had argued that Melvin couldn’t possibly pay the restitution the Bagley couple had requested.
He also voiced doubt about whether an April medical appointment for Stephanie was tied to Melvin’s crimes, and he noted that the Bagleys knew Melvin did not have enough money to pay them because they have power over his finances.
Snyder countered, saying Carbon County Attorney Sarah Chavez Harkins showed enough evidence to link the medical visits to Melvin’s crimes, and that there’s a stray chance Melvin could come into some inheritance to pay toward restitution.
Still, she added, it’s not likely Melvin will be able to pay the full amount.
JR and Stephanie did not have health insurance during the incident because he was just starting his career as an independent trucker, he told the court.
‘Squabble’
Stephanie Bagley was still on edge after the sentencing hearing, saying she won’t feel the matter is truly over until after any appeals Melvin may wage.
“I hope he rots in hell,” she said.
Stephanie did not attend the sentencing hearing. She said she didn’t care to entertain the “squabble” about restitution.
Judge’s Last Word
Melvin had pleaded guilty in May, two counts of second-degree attempted murder, one for each victim.
Melvin told Snyder that he suspected the couple of stealing from him, an assertion that court documents later called unfounded.
Both Harkins and Lemus agreed to a sentence of between 20 and 40 years in prison.
Snyder on Monday agreed to that sentence as well, but she stacked the sentences for both convictions consecutively to one another. meaning Melvin has to serve each 20-to-40-year sentence back-to-back rather than simultaneously.
Snyder recognized that it’s virtually impossible for Melvin to outlive his sentence.
“I’d like to say I don’t know what you were thinking,” said Snyder. “You were willing to kill your nephew and his wife over money. It just wasn’t worth it.”
Snyder continued: “You’re going to have to live with the consequences of those actions.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
