RivCo man found guilty of killing former schoolmate, hiding her body in the mountains

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 convicted of first-degree murder on Wednesday.

After deliberating just over a day, a Riverside jury returned with the verdict against Owen Skyler Shover, 23, of Hesperia, additionally finding true a special circumstance allegation of lying in wait for the death of Aranda Briones in 2019.

Jurors returned with their unanimous decision before the lunch hour Wednesday. Riverside County Superior Court Judge Timothy Hollenhorst scheduled a sentencing hearing for Oct. 25 at the Riverside Hall of Justice.   

Shover, who is being held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta, faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

His brother, 27-year-old Gary Anthony Shover of Hesperia, in March admitted being an accessory after the fact under a plea agreement with the District Attorney's Office. He was sentenced to 12 months' felony probation.   

According to District Attorney Mike Hestrin's trial brief, Aranda and Shover attended Moreno Valley High School in the fall of 2017.   

The victim was a "troubled" youth whose parents were absent, and she had been adopted by her grandfather, Carl Horskotte, and resided with him from age 3 at his home on Via Vargas Drive, according to the brief.   

Hestrin said that on the morning of Nov. 7, 2017, Aranda decided to join her friends, including Shover, in Community Park, rather than attend classes. A sheriff's school resource officer looking for truants spotted the teenagers in the park and went to speak with them, prompting the youths to flee in different directions. Shover had a small-caliber handgun in his possession and tossed it at Aranda, yelling for her to hide it, according to court papers.   

The victim became frightened and immediately threw it into a drainage canal. However, the deputy spotted her in the act and later detained and questioned her, along with school administrators, at which point she disclosed that Shover had been the one with the gun, Hestrin said.

The matter came before the local school board in February 2018, and members voted to expel Aranda and Shover. She enrolled in a nearby continuation school, while Shover moved out of his mother's Moreno Valley home and relocated to his father's residence and enrolled in a continuation school in Hesperia. But he was incensed over being expelled and what he evidently perceived as Aranda's betrayal.

Sheriff's Central Homicide Unit detectives later discovered a series of Snapchat, Facebook and other conversations initiated by the defendant from November 2018 to January 2019, during which he attempted to purchase a firearm, the brief said.

He eventually obtained one.   

On Jan. 12, 2019, Shover contacted Aranda via text, inviting her to join him the following day while he made drug deliveries and ``robs drug dealers,'' the brief said. She agreed to meet him at Bayside Park, and the two connected shortly before 5 p.m. on Jan. 13, 2019. Hestrin said that with two of her friends watching, Aranda got into the defendant's Nissan Versa, and the two headed north toward Box Springs Mountain.

She posted several pictures to social media within an hour, showing her and Shover in his car, expressing elation to be with her ``homie,'' who was letting her do some of the driving, according to the brief.

Through mobile phone tower ``pings,'' Moreno Valley's Citywide Camera System and security cameras mounted outside area homes, the occupants of the Nissan were tracked around Box Springs Mountain for roughly 20 minutes. Court papers said the vehicle turned north toward San Bernardino shortly before 6 p.m., in the direction of a mobile home park.  

While en route, Shover contacted his brother via Facebook, stating, "Be ready for tonight. Get shovels and lighter fluid ready,'' according to the brief.

The defendant retrieved Gary Shover from the park, and the two headed north into the San Bernardino Mountains via state Routes 138 and 18. Between 8:33 p.m,. and 10:14 p.m., the defendant shut off his cell phone, making its signal unreadable. It reactivated after he reached his father's home at 16210 Grevillea St., prosecutors said.

In the ensuing weeks, Aranda's family and friends filed reports with the sheriff's department, believing she had met with foul play. The investigation was initially handled as a missing person inquiry, but it ``became a homicide investigation (because detectives) found extensive and compelling evidence that the defendant meticulously planned and carried out the murder of Aranda,'' Hestrin wrote.

One of the salient points included a search of the Nissan, during which the blood detector Luminol was sprayed in the trunk, showing ``the possible presence of a significant amount of blood that had pooled toward the bottom of the trunk, underneath the carpeting,'' according to Hestrin.

DNA was procured from the vehicle, and he said it was ultimately determined to be a match to Aranda.

Neither Owen or Gary Shover had prior convictions.

Law enforcement personnel and volunteer groups have searched the mountains where they believe Aranda's remains may have been disposed, but no trace of her has ever been found.