Relatives and a surviving victim confronted the five-year impact of a Magna house-party shooting before the judge imposed a 45-year minimum.
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — Standing beside a photograph of her brother nearly five years after he was killed, Ivan Valenzuela’s sister told a Utah courtroom that her family still feels his absence in moments that once would have brought uncomplicated happiness. That loss framed the Aug. 24 sentencing of Patrocinio Perez, 24, who admitted killing Valenzuela and Juan Valentine Rodriguez at a crowded Magna house party in 2021.
The hearing gave relatives and a surviving shooting victim a chance to describe what followed the minutes of gunfire that took two lives and wounded a third. Valenzuela was 18. Rodriguez was 19. Autumn Baker, who was 17 at the time, suffered a gunshot wound to her arm. Baker said in a written statement that she had once been outgoing but later developed post-traumatic stress, difficulty sleeping and a heightened response to loud noises. Valenzuela’s sister said her family continued to struggle with the feeling that someone was always missing, even when they tried to enjoy ordinary occasions.
Only after hearing about those consequences did Third District Judge Heather Brereton turn to the formal punishment. She sentenced Perez to 15 years to life on each of two aggravated murder convictions and five years to life on each of three first-degree felony firearm-discharge convictions. Brereton ordered all five terms to be served consecutively. The combined minimum is 45 years in prison, although each sentence carries a possible life term. The judge called the killings “horrendous” and “senseless” and said their effects extended to the many young people who saw friends die or tried to help them inside the home.
The case began before dawn on Aug. 15, 2021, when police responded to a house party at a Magna residence. Officers encountered people fleeing and found Rodriguez and Valenzuela suffering from gunshot wounds inside, according to the charging account. Rodriguez died at the scene. Valenzuela was taken to a hospital and died soon afterward. Police also found Baker wounded in the arm. Investigators estimated that 30 to 50 teenagers and young adults had been at the gathering, leaving authorities with a large pool of witnesses but also a chaotic scene from which many guests had scattered.
Prosecutors later described the shooting as a sudden attack rather than the end of a prolonged dispute. Deputy Salt Lake County attorney Vincent Meister told Brereton that Perez moved toward the two men in a way that allowed him to get close without being detected. Rodriguez was shot first, prosecutors said, and Valenzuela was shot seconds later. The gunfire that struck Rodriguez also injured Baker. Meister emphasized that Perez did not know the two men personally, a fact that made the claimed reason for the violence especially difficult for the families to understand.
According to investigators, Perez eventually said he believed Rodriguez and Valenzuela had been speaking negatively about his friends. Prosecutors also said he referred to a haircut he associated with a rival gang, but they told the court that neither victim had that haircut. Authorities said there was no evidence the two men had attacked Perez before he opened fire. At sentencing, Meister disputed any self-defense characterization and said the evidence instead showed that Perez approached without warning. The prosecution’s description placed the killings in stark contrast with the limited contact Perez apparently had with the victims before the shots were fired.
Police did not identify Perez solely from what happened inside the house. Investigators said people began reporting that he had claimed responsibility for the shooting. Records from a ride service, telephone data and Snapchat location information placed him near the home around the time of the killings. Authorities said Perez had obtained the address through a Snapchat exchange and was driven to the gathering by a friend. After his eventual arrest, he acknowledged entering the home, shooting Rodriguez and Valenzuela and fleeing, according to the charging documents reported in the case.
Prosecutors also highlighted what they said Perez did after the deaths. Meister told the sentencing court that Perez boasted on social media about firearms, including posts that referred to “upgrading his belt” and ammunition he described as “ultra lethal.” Investigators had also received accounts that Perez told others he was responsible for the Magna shooting. Those statements later became part of a broader prosecution portrait of someone who, in the state’s view, treated gun violence as something to boast about rather than a tragedy. The judge considered that history along with the guilty pleas and victim statements when deciding whether Perez’s sentences should overlap.
The families reached sentencing only after years of legal proceedings. Perez originally faced aggravated murder counts and other charges, including obstruction of justice and possession of a weapon by a restricted person. At one point prosecutors amended the murder case in a way that made capital punishment a potential outcome if he were convicted at trial. The prosecution later resolved the case through a plea agreement. Perez pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated murder and three firearm-discharge offenses, while prosecutors agreed to recommend 15 years to life instead of 25 years to life on each murder count. Other charges were dismissed under the agreement.
Defense attorney Rudy Bautista urged the court to recognize that Perez was taking responsibility. Bautista said his client had come to understand how destructive his earlier way of living had been and now appreciated the value of life. Perez then spoke briefly to apologize to the victims’ families. Brereton accepted the negotiated sentencing ranges but made clear that she considered the plea terms favorable to Perez. Calling the agreement a “gift,” she focused on the number of victims and the widespread trauma at the house before deciding that each prison term would begin only after the preceding term was served.
That distinction between consecutive and concurrent sentences determined how much time the guilty pleas would actually require. Two 15-year minimum murder terms create a 30-year minimum. The three additional five-year minimum firearm terms add another 15 years because Brereton made them consecutive as well. The total is therefore at least 45 years. A separate sentence imposed in another Perez case was made concurrent with the Magna sentence and does not increase the 45-year minimum. Early reporting from the hearing briefly stated a 30-year minimum before the figure was corrected to account for the firearm terms.
The judge’s decision also reflected the prosecution’s argument that the court should treat the harm to each person separately. Meister identified not only Rodriguez, Valenzuela and Baker but the dozens of young people who had been gathered in the home. Some watched the killings; others confronted the aftermath. Brereton said those continuing effects were evident years later as relatives spoke in court. Valenzuela’s sister asked that her brother be remembered through his roles within a family and circle of friends rather than primarily through the circumstances of his death, underscoring a tension common to victim-impact hearings: the criminal case necessarily centers on the killing, while relatives remember an entire life.
For Baker, the passage of five years also did not mean the shooting had ended. Her statement described trauma that continued in sleep problems and reactions to sound. For Valenzuela’s family, grief remained tied to celebrations and everyday moments he would otherwise have shared. The two murder convictions formally accounted for the lives of Valenzuela and Rodriguez, while the firearm counts reflected additional gunfire and injury, but the hearing showed that no sentence can measure every effect described by those who survived.
Perez now enters the punishment phase of a case that spent years moving through Utah’s courts. The guilty pleas remove the uncertainty of a murder trial, and Brereton’s consecutive sentencing order establishes a 45-year minimum before any possible release. For the victims’ families, the Aug. 24 hearing provided a legal endpoint to the prosecution but not to the losses that brought them into the courtroom. Their statements made clear that the consequences of the six minutes Baker described have continued for years.
Author note: Last updated September 30, 2026.