MURRAY, Utah — The girlfriend of a man killed in September has been charged with obstruction of justice.
According to police, on Sept. 29, 2021 Murray Police were dispatched to a shooting at 125 E 4800 S. The victim Carlos Jhovany Huerta Garcia was found with a gunshot wound in the front room, and shortly after died. Garcia's girlfriend Vanessa Arnold was on scene and home during the homicide.
According to court records obtained by FOX 13 News, Vanessa told Murray Police during two separate interviews that she was home with Garcia upstairs in their bedroom until he went downstairs and was shot by an unknown suspect. Police said, Vanessa claimed that she never left the bedroom for about 24 hours prior to the shooting except one time briefly to clean something.
Murray Police said they obtained video surveillance from a nearby business that showed Vanessa outside, going back and forth from the residence to a camper trailer multiple times with her son for over an hour prior to the shooting.
Police said, her son JA was seen on video leaving the scene in a vehicle seconds after the gunshot. Vanessa has been interviewed two more separate times since obtaining this footage and police said she continues to deny JA was ever present, that she was outside or engaged in any sort of activity possibly related to the homicide.
Police said, she continued to deny this even when confronted with the video evidence and her other son admitting to detectives that JA was there that night.
Police said, Vanessa knowingly gave wrong information about who else was at the residence, first claiming the male who drove the vehicle was named Ismael and later called the person Israel in a separate interview, not keeping her story straight.
