Aranda Briones’ brief 16-year life was fraught with challenges.
Her grandparents adopted her at age 3 and placed few restrictions on her. She used cocaine and robbed drug dealers. One of her most positive influences, her grandmother, died in 2016.
But Briones’ older brother, Daniel, who considered her his closest friend, said, “She was not without her troubles and questionable decisions, but she was a bright soul. Aranda was filled with unlimited potential that she was only beginning to tap into. “
That was among the tearful tributes from family members on Friday, Oct. 25, before her killer, Owen Skyler Shover, 23, was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in state prison after being convicted of murdering his former Moreno Valley High classmate in 2019 and, along with his brother, burying her still-missing body in the San Bernardino Mountains.
Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin did not seek the death penalty. A conviction on a special circumstances allegation of lying in wait resulted in the life term.
The shocking nature of the slaying that sparked an outpouring of emotion from the community prompted Hestrin to personally prosecute the case and one of the most easygoing Superior Court judges in the county, Timothy J. Hollenhorst, to tear into Shover.
Matthew Horstkotte wipes away tears as he delivers a victim impact statement for his sister, Aranda Briones, on Friday, Oct. 25, 2024, in Riverside. Briones, who was slain in 2019, receives justice as her murderer is sentenced. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)
“There are many questions left unanswered, none more than where is Aranda?” Hollenhorst told Shover, whose face barely betrayed emotion during the sentencing hearing at the Riverside County Hall of Justice.
“Mr. Shover, from what I can tell about you, it appears that you are not capable of feeling remorse, so I do not intend to lecture you on how devastating your actions were in this case. However, there is no question in this court’s mind that you are the face of pure evil,” Hollenhorst said.
Shover declined to speak on his own behalf.
The speakers among the some 20 supporters in the courtroom made victim-impact statements, describing how Briones seemed to turn her life around when she was reunited with her father and got a job she loved.
A friend, Amanda Johnson, said, “She was a kind spirit and was always joyful, even in the bad moments.”
A cousin, Madeline Horstkotte, was one of the speakers who liberally dipped into the aqua-blue box of white tissues that sat on the lectern. She was 10 years old when Briones was killed.
Madeline Horstkotte, 16, wipes away tears as she delivers a victim impact statement for her cousin, Aranda Briones, on Friday, Oct. 25, 2024, in Riverside. Briones, who was slain in 2019, receives justice as her murderer is sentenced. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)
“That regret physically hurts that I didn’t hug you and tell you how much you meant to me,” Horstkotte said, recalling the last time she saw Briones. “Even though we were cousins, you were like a sister to me.”
Briones’ aunt, Deborah Logan, noted that Briones would never enjoy so many of the “firsts” in life that others look forward to and experience.
“We had no idea the sun would set so soon on her dreams,” Logan told Hollenhorst.
Briones vanished on Jan. 13, 2019.
Hestrin said Shover’s motive was retaliation for an incident 14 months earlier. Students were ditching school at a park when police showed up. Everyone ran, and Shover tossed a gun to Briones, who tossed it into a ravine. Briones told police that the gun belonged to Shover. Both were expelled from school but neither was prosecuted.
Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin listens to the judge at Riverside County Hall of Justice on Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. Hestrin prosecuted Owen Skyler Shover, who was sentenced for the 2019 killing of 16-year-old Aranda Briones of Moreno Valley. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)
On the date Briones went missing, Hestrin said, Shover lured her into his car, ostensibly to hunt for drug dealers to rob. But it was a ruse. At Box Springs Mountain between Riverside and Moreno Valley, Shover killed her by some unknown means and placed her in the trunk of a car. Shover then picked up his brother Gary in Hesperia and they drove up to the mountains and buried Briones’ body.
The Shovers were arrested on Feb. 11, 2019.
The evidence against Shover was largely circumstantial, relying on DNA, cell phone data, surveillance camera images and a text message from Shover to his brother on the morning of Briones’ disappearance that said: “Be ready for tonight. Get shovels and lighter fluid ready.”
Defense attorney Steve Allen said Friday that he plans to appeal the conviction on grounds that evidence was improperly excluded and that the jury was improperly instructed.
Gary Anthony Shover, 28, pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact in March and was sentenced to one year in jail.
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