A man who killed a 16-year-old Moreno Valley girl because she got him expelled from school, hiding her body somewhere in the San Bernardino Mountains, was sentenced today to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
A Riverside jury in August deliberated barely a day before convicting 23-year-old Owen Skyler Shover of Hesperia of first-degree murder and a special-circumstance allegation of lying in wait for the death of Aranda Briones in 2019.
During a hearing at the Riverside Hall of Justice Friday, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Timothy Hollenhorst imposed the sentence required by law.
“The victim didn’t deserve this. She was just a kid,” District Attorney Mike Hestrin told City News Service. “She had her whole life ahead of her. This was a tremendous loss — all because of one person’s choice. It’s truly heartbreaking.”
Hestrin chose to handle the prosecution himself not because the case posed particularly unique challenges, but because “it’s good for the elected D.A. to do a trial once in a while.”