2 Utah men sent to prison for the murder of 2 teens days apart in 2022

By Emily Ashcraft

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    SALT LAKE CITY (KSL) — Brandon Galicia described hearing his younger brother’s girlfriend screaming outside their home and finding his brother “in a pool of blood.”

He told a judge Tuesday that no matter what the sentence is for the men who pleaded guilty to murdering his brother, the family will not find peace. Galicia said seeing his parents cry is hard for him, and he tries to hold in tears and be strong for his family.

“We live through this every day,” he said.

Bryan Galicia, 17, was shot and killed during an attempted carjacking on Sept. 10, 2022, near 500 S. Post Street (950 West), in Salt Lake City.

Two men charged with killing Bryan were sentenced on Tuesday — one of them was sentenced in a separate fatal shooting that happened just days after Bryan was killed.

Christian Rodriguez, 18, pleaded guilty to the murder as part of a plea deal that dismissed other charges, and he was sentenced to 15 years to life in the Utah State Prison by 3rd District Judge Heather Brereton.

Nestor Del Valle, 18, was also charged with murdering Bryan, but the case was dismissed as part of a plea deal in which he pleaded guilty to another murder that happened just a few days later, on Sept. 15, 2022.

The judge sentenced Del Valle to 15 years to life for murder, a first-degree felony, in the other killing. Del Valle was also ordered to serve a term of five years to life for aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony, for a separate incident that occurred the day before Bryan’s death.

‘We didn’t even know you’ Magdalena Rodriguez, Bryan’s mother, said her son was loving and wanted to help everyone. She spoke at the sentencing in Spanish, which was translated by a court interpreter.

She talked about hearing the shots, running to the window and going out the door to find her child “in a blood bath,” and screaming for help.

“I looked at my son on the ground, thinking and saying, ‘No, that cannot be Bryan,’ and I was looking at his girlfriend, desperate, waiting for the ambulance to get there,” she said.

Magdalena Rodriguez said the doctors told her they could not do anything for him, but she pleaded with God not to take her son. Now, she said she goes on because of her other son still living. She said she lost her first son in a car accident and has now lost her youngest son.

She said Bryan had four bullet wounds — one on the head, one behind his ear, one on his cheek and one on his shoulder.

“I’m pleading you not to let him out, because they had plenty of opportunities to change and they didn’t do it. My son won’t have another opportunity. He had barely turned 17 years old,” Magdalena Rodriguez told the judge during Christian Rodriguez’s sentencing.

Talia Hawkes, Bryan’s girlfriend, said she is reminded every day about getting out of the car and trying to save his life. She said he was still alive for a few minutes and grabbed her hand. She said they had plans together, and she had a ring — they were going to get married in 2024.

“I had my life where I wanted it, and we were ready to move forward. I was just coming home from work like everybody else was … and now I have to wake up without the person I thought I was going to wake up with every day,” she said.

Hawkes said peace and closure comes with knowing it might not happen again because the men are in prison. She said after Bryan’s family learned of the criminal history for Rodriguez and Del Valle, she wondered why they had been allowed to be in a position where they could do something like this.

Now she said she is worried about people coming up to her car again. She can’t go anywhere without the fear that someone will follow her home.

“We didn’t even know you … we just wanted to go home and go to bed,” she told Christian Rodriguez.

Rodriguez told the family and friends of Bryan that he is sorry for their loss and has learned from his mistakes.

Rodriguez, of West Jordan, was initially charged with aggravated murder, aggravated robbery and two counts of discharge of a firearm causing serious injury, all first-degree felonies. The additional charges were all dismissed on Jan. 17 when he pleaded guilty to murder, a first-degree felony.

Second murder Del Valle was originally charged in connection with Bryan’s death with murder and aggravated robbery, first-degree felonies, but both of those charges were dismissed when he pleaded guilty to another murder.

Del Valle was also sentenced on Tuesday to 15 years to life in prison for murder, a first-degree felony, in the other death. On Sept. 15, 2022, court documents say he pulled up to Len Robles, 16, of Midvale, and his friends, asked them where they were from, and then shouted an expletive and began firing at the teenagers, hitting them.

Len was killed just five days after Bryan. One of the teenagers walking with Len told police that he “had a beef” with another teenager, and they thought it might have been a setup, but another teenager in the group denied there was any setup.

Del Valle was also sentenced to five years to life for aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony, for approaching the teenagers and telling them to “run their pockets” before firing multiple shots at them as they ran away. One bullet struck a phone in one of their back pockets.

He pleaded guilty to this case on Feb. 1 — the same day the charges were officially filed — and as a result, eight counts of felony discharge of a firearm, a third-degree felony, and one count of possession of a weapon as a minor, a class B misdemeanor, were dismissed.

Charges said he was supposed to be wearing a GPS ankle monitor during these incidents while he awaited trial for four counts of aggravated robbery, but he was not.

Len’s family made comments at the sentencing for Del Valle on Tuesday morning, and the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office later released a statement.

“(Del Valle’s) risk to our community will be answered by prison for a long time. Violent acts that cause injuries to others will be aggressively prosecuted. … I hope these convictions will allow the victim’s family to begin healing,” District Attorney Sim Gill said.

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