After a man suspected of killing another man in a Salt Lake City hotel room Monday during a drug deal gone bad, he allegedly fled the scene, called his parents “and confessed that he had just shot a man,” the SLC Police Department reports.
He was then driving east on Interstate 80 away from Salt Lake City with an alleged accomplice when both men were caught by an alert Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office deputy.
Chino Montoya Aguilar, 21, and Carlos Samuel Chee, 23, were stopped just west of Green River at about mile marker 83 driving eastbound on Interstate 80, said sheriff’s office spokesman Jason Mower.
Both face a charge of first-degree murder.
That was at 10:50 a.m., about 20 minutes after Salt Lake City police put out an alert for agencies to be on the lookout for the men, Mower told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday morning.
“Yeah, I mean, it only took a few minutes before we found the vehicle,” he said, adding that the alert “caught our attention because it was advertised as two homicide suspects from Salt Lake City.”
Because they were wanted for a violent crime and assumed to be armed and dangerous, Mower said the deputy conducted a “high-risk traffic stop.”
That entails pulling a vehicle over, then giving the suspects commands through a loud speaker instead of walking up to the vehicle, he said.
In this case, the gold 2013 Toyota Camry with Texas license plates registered to Chee pulled over right away, both young men complied with the deputy’s commands, and they were arrested without any resistance, Mower said.
That was the best possible way for that type of stop to go down, he said, adding that they expect people who are potentially armed, dangerous and desperate to be violent when confronted by law enforcement.
“You stop them and you’re thinking, ‘Boy, you know, I hope these guys aren’t trying to go out in a blaze of glory or something,” Mower said. “They immediately got into handcuffs … and they complied with all those orders (from the deputy).
“The event itself was, thankfully, pretty low-key and went off without a hitch.”
Carlos And ‘Grumpy’
That arrest was put into motion hours earlier when Salt Lake City Police Dispatch got a frantic call at 6:37 a.m. reporting a shooting at the Springhill Suites hotel at 625 South 300 West, Detective Kory Olsen writes in an affidavit of probable cause filed in both men’s court cases.
“The caller indicated that her friend had just been shot in room 108,” the affidavit says.
When officers arrived, they found the woman outside the hotel saying that her friend, identified in the affidavit as Christian Lee, 32, “had just been shot by a male named Carlos.”
Carlos had come to the hotel because he had made a deal with Lee to bring him some marijuana, the affidavit states. Carlos arrived with another man she didn’t know who was referred to as “Grumpy” and later identified as Aguilar.
“Carlos was acting very paranoid and had not slept in several days,” she told investigators, Olsen wrote. “She said that Carlos had a gun and the other male then shot Lee and they both fled the scene.”
When officers went to room 108, they found Lee dead with a gunshot wound to the head, the affidavit says.
Confessed To Parents
As police investigated, they contacted Aguilar’s parents in Clovis, New Mexico, where he also lives, who said their son called them after the shooting, Olsen wrote.
“Aguilar contacted his parents … shortly after the shooting and confessed that he had just shot a man in Salt Lake City over a drug deal,” the affidavit says. “
Police also learned that Chee, who lives in Texas, and Aguilar left the hotel in Chee’s gold Toyota Camry, which was seen on traffic cameras driving away.
The female friend told police that she and Chee had connected through a dating application and arranged to meet at the hotel so he could sell her some pot, the affidavit says.
The woman “described Carlos as being paranoid and showed her that he was in possession of a firearm and also a large amount of marijuana that was in a plastic container which is commonly stored by marijuana dispensaries,” the affidavit says.
She and Carlos had been hanging out in room 108 for a short time when he got on his phone with his “cousin” and told him what room they were in. That’s when Lee, who had rented the room, wanted her and Chee to leave.
Aguilar then arrived and knocked on the door, “and came into the room,” according to the affidavit.
“(Then) a confrontation took place between Carlos and Christian,” the document continues. “Carlos then pulled out a firearm and (the woman) then fled into the bathroom. … She heard a gunshot, but did not see the shooting. She then left the room after the males had left, and she observed Christian had been shot in the head and was beyond help.”
That’s when she called 911.
Ran From Room
In reviewing the hotel’s surveillance video from the hallway outside room 108, police observed the woman and Chee going into the room, then Lee and another man later identified as Aguilar going in, Olsen wrote.
“At this time, a male Hispanic adult wearing a gray flannel shirt is seen passing the room at the same time Christian and (Aguilar) make entry,” the affidavit says. “The male in the flannel … is then seen turning around and running into room 108 while reaching into his jacket pocket.”
Then Aguilar and Chee are both seen running from the room.
It didn’t take long for a pair of Salt Lake City detectives to get to Rock Springs after the suspects were detained, Mower said.
They arrived right after lunch and talked with both suspects, he said. As of Tuesday afternoon, both men were still being held at the Sweetwater County Detention Center.
Depending on how they’re charged, a first-degree murder conviction in Utah could mean 15 years to life in prison. More severe cases charged as “aggravated” murder could mean life in prison without parole or the death penalty.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
