Woman pleads guilty in deputy death after conviction tossed

Woman pleads guilty in deputy death after conviction tossed

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) —A woman has pleaded guilty to reduced charges in her teenage involvement with the death of a police officer, a plea deal that comes after the Utah Supreme Court overturned her original conviction.

Meagan Grunwald’s pleas likely mean she’ll serve less than her original sentence of up to life in prison, Fox13 news reported. She pleaded guilty to second-degree felony charges of manslaughter and assault on a police officer.

Grunwald’s boyfriend shot and killed Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Cory Wride after he happened upon the couple’s pickup truck pulled over on a snowy day in 2014.

Grunwald drove away, sparking a multi-county chase that ended with the death of the boyfriend, Jose Angel Garcia Juaregui. Deputy Greg Sherwood was shot in the head and survived.

Grunwald, who was then 17, testified that the much-older Juaregui had forced her to drive.

Prosecutors, though, argued she wanted to help him. She was convicted of murder under Utah accomplice law.

The state’s top court later found that different jury instructions might have led to a different outcome.

In a new statement that accompanied her plea agreement earlier this month, Grunwald acknowledged she was “reckless as to whether my aid would result in the death of Sgt. Wride.”

Her sentencing is set for next month.