A California man who plotted for two years to kill the 16-year-old girl he blamed for getting him expelled from school will never get out of prison.
Owen Skyler Shover, 23, was sentenced to life without parole in the 2019 murder of Aranda Briones, KESQ reported. He was convicted in August.
“The victim didn’t deserve this. She was just a kid,” District Attorney Mike Hestrin said. “She had her whole life ahead of her. This was a tremendous loss — all because of one person’s choice. It’s truly heartbreaking.”
Shover and Briones were among several students who cut class at Moreno Valley High School on November 7, 2017, and headed to Community Park, as CrimeOnline reported. 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 seethed for months and then 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.
Gary Shover, now 27, pleaded guilty in March to being an accessory after the fact and was sentenced to 12 months probation.
Friday’s sentencing was a formality, KESQ said. His conviction required it.
“He’s a stone-cold killer,” Hestrin said. “On the day of his conviction, he spoke to his grandfather from jail, wondering whether he should `get a trophy’ for being a convicted murderer. He has shown no remorse.”
