- Patrocinio Perez will spend at least 30 years in prison after judge ordered consecutive sentences for 2021 double murder.
- Ivan Valenzuela and Juan Rodriguez were both killed at a 2021 Magna party, and a woman was injured.
- Some family members and prosecutors spoke about the lasting impacts of the killing, and Perez apologized before he was sentenced.
SALT LAKE CITY — Ivan Valenzuela’s sister stood next to a photo of him in a courtroom on Monday as she talked about how hard it was to explain how hurt her family has been since his loss five years ago.
“I don’t want him to be seen as just another kid … gone to gun violence. He’s my brother, he is a son, he’s a cousin, he’s a friend and he was taken from us for really no reason,” she said.
The woman said no sentence is enough for the man who killed him, because that man still gets to call his family and be alive while her brother doesn’t. She said her family can’t laugh without feeling guilty, and always feels as if there is a piece missing…