A California man charged with killing a 16-year-old classmate because she ratted him out as having a gun while they were cutting class in 2017 was convicted Wednesday of first degree murder.
Both Aranda Briones and Owen Skyler Shover, now 23, were expelled after the incident, and Shover plotted for two years for his revenge, KESQ reported.
Shover and Briones were among several students who cut class at Moreno Valley High School on November 7, 2017, and headed to Community Park. They were spotted by a school resource officer, however, who walked over to talk with them, prompting the truant children to flee in all directions.
Shover had a gun in his waistband and tossed it to Briones, telling her to hide it. She promptly threw it into a drainage canal, but the officer saw her do it and detained and questioned her in front of school administrators. She admitted the gun came from Shover. The school board voted in February 2018 to expel both students, and they enrolled in separate continuation schools.
Prosecutors say that Shover spent from November 2018 until January 2019 trying to buy another gun, according to Snapchat, Facebook, and other conversations detectives uncovered. He eventually succeeded, and on on January 12, 2019, invited Briones to join him while he made drug delivers and “robs drug dealers.” She agreed to meet him the following day and was seen by friends getting into Shover’s Nissa Versa and heading toward Box Springs Mountain.
She was never seen again, although within the next hour she posted photographs from the car to social media. Detectives tracked her cell phone and saw the car on security cameras in the Box Springs Mountain area for about 20 minutes before they drove to a mobile home park and picked up Shover’s brother, Gary Anthony Shover.
Before they got there, Shover messaged his brother over Facebook saying, “Be ready for tonight. Get shovels and lighter fluid ready.”
Once they’d retrieved Gary Shover, they headed into the San Bernardino Mountains. At about 8:30 p.m., Owen Shover turned off his cell phone, and it remained off until about 10:15, when he returned to his father’s home in Hesperia, where he lived.
Briones’ friends and family filed missing person reports with the sheriff’s office, which ultimately shifted its investigation to a homicide probe when they “found extensive and compelling evidence that the defendant meticulously planned and carried out the murder of Aranda,” prosecutors said.
The Shover brothers were arrested just over a month later, as CrimeOnline reported. Owen Shover denied killing the teen, saying he’d dropped her off at a park.
But prosecutors said that “a significant amount of blood that had pooled toward the bottom of the trunk (of Shover’s car), underneath the carpetingm” KESQ reported. DNA found in the vehicle matched Briones.
Gary Shover, now 27, pleaded guilty in March to being an accessory after the fact and was sentenced to 12 months probation.
The Riverside jury returned the guilty verdict for Owen Shover after deliberating for just over a day, additionally finding for the special circumstance of laying in wait.
Riverside County Superior Court Judge Timothy Hollenhorst scheduled a sentencing hearing for October 25, when Shover faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast.
[Featured image: Aranda Briones/California Department of Justice and Owen Skyler Shover/Riverside County Sheriff’s Office]
