Steven Donovan Carmona has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison after admitting his role in a July 23, 2022, drive-by shooting outside a West Jordan house party that left three people dead. The victims, young men from nearby Millcreek, were pronounced dead at the scene and at local hospitals. The sentence, handed down on March 23, caps a case that wound through both state and federal courts and stretched across nearly four years of investigation.
Under a plea agreement, Carmona, now 20, pleaded guilty to a single count of aggravated murder while prosecutors dismissed two additional murder counts and several firearm charges, according to KSL. Investigators told the court that 27 rounds were fired during the attack and that the victims were targeted because of alleged gang ties. The judge credited Carmona with nearly three years already served in custody before the March sentencing.
The shooting unfolded outside a home near 3355 West 6920 South, where officers found Fayzan Ali, 18, Ayash Mohamed, 18, and Mohamed Mohamed, 20, fatally wounded, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. Witnesses said a white Cadillac rolled past the house and opened fire. Surveillance video shows people leaving the party shortly before the victims walked outside, and West Jordan police described the ambush as a targeted hit tied to tensions between rival groups.
Search warrants later turned up a 9mm handgun in Carmona's backpack, and forensic testing matched bullets and shell casings from the scene to that weapon, according to Gephardt Daily. Officers also found a white Cadillac parked near Carmona's apartment with what they believed was a bullet hole. Investigators recovered messages that prosecutors say showed the group was seeking retaliation after an earlier fight, and a party video placed Carmona and three other teens at the scene shortly before the shooting.
Carmona was also sentenced in federal court on March 30 to 20 years in prison for assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering, and the judge ordered that the state sentence run at the same time as the federal term, KSL reports. Because the sentences are concurrent, the federal term will control his custody unless it is later reduced. Officials say Carmona will move to state custody if he finishes his federal time. The federal plea followed a separate probe into alleged gang activity connected to the case.
Co-defendants and juvenile cases
Three teenagers who police say were in the car with Carmona were charged in juvenile court. Two have been ordered into secure care until they turn 25, and one was admitted to manslaughter in 2024 and was sentenced, according to ABC4 Utah. A third juvenile still has charges pending. Court filings and charging documents state that the group had been looking for rival gang members in the weeks after a large fight at an event in West Valley, according to the reports.
Legal implications
Prosecutors in the case used both juvenile and adult charging tracks, arguing for longer terms and secure care for some youths where they said it was necessary for public safety and rehabilitation. The decision to stack concurrent state and federal sentences reflects a strategy often used in gang-linked cases to secure lengthy custody under federal law while keeping state charges in play. Local leaders and families told reporters that the killings laid bare ongoing gang tensions in the valley and renewed calls for prevention and outreach efforts, as chronicled by The Salt Lake Tribune.
