Late night text messages may have provoked the shooting death of James Edward Carey, 25, and wounding of Jared R. Hurley, 34, according to defendant Teaunna Cesspooch.

Cesspooch, 19, disclosed the allegation in a taped interview with FBI special agent Travis Lemon during the investigation of the Uintah County murder case.

Court observers listened Wednesday as part of her interview was played at the combined preliminary hearing for Cesspooch and co-defendant, Bruce Silva, 23, in Eighth District Court.

Prosecutors say Cesspooch provided the weapon allegedly used by Silva in the violent confrontation in which Carey and Hurley were shot.

Silva is charged with first-degree criminal homicide, first-degree attempted aggravated murder, two counts of second-degree aggravated assault, second-degree possession of dangerous weapon by a restricted person and three class B misdemeanors for violence committed in the presence of a child.

Cesspooch is charged with first-degree criminal homicide, first-degree attempted murder, two counts of second-degree aggravated assault, second-degree possession of dangerous weapon by a restricted person and three class B misdemeanors for violence committed in the presence of a child.

State prosecutor Mark Thomas noted, however, there may be amended charges to come in the case against Teaunna Cesspooch.

Eighth District Court Judge Ed Peterson ruled that the prosecutors presented sufficient evidence at the preliminary hearings for the two defendants to go to trial.

Pay Back

“They started it,” Cesspooch said in the recording, claiming a broken window in Silva’s car led to several threatening text messages, and motivation for the group of six; she, Bruce and his brothers Adrian, Albert and Kevin along with friends Colin Ryan Manning and Shadow Reed, to seek pay back.

In a second taped interview between FBI special agent Dave Ryan and Manning, the young man recalled the group taking his white Ford F-150 pickup truck from Roosevelt to the Lapoint home.

Manning said Cesspooch drove the vehicle with the women seated in the cab of the truck while the men, armed with baseball bats, sat in the truckbed.

Upon arriving at the home, Manning said he told Cesspooch to retrieve the weapon from the seat of the truck and hand to him, which he gave to Bruce.

Cesspooch told investigators that she found the .380-caliber handgun in the driver’s side seat of the truck.

“I had no idea whose gun that was,” she said in the recording. “All I did was hand it to him, and then things got crazy.”

Manning, an enrolled member of a federally recognized Native American Tribe, has not been charged in district court as prosecutors say, if and when he is charged, he appear in federal court.

None of the others in the group of six are enrolled tribal members.

After the shooting, Cesspooch and Manning said to investigators that they returned to the truck with the others and fled the Basin.

Response

Immediately after the shooting Uintah County sheriff’s deputy Derek Nelson interviewed witnesses Terry Carey, brother of the deceased, and friend Kevin Lamont Klawitter at the Roosevelt hospital.

Carey told investigators their attackers at the Lapont home were unknown to the group, telling authorities “maybe they came to the wrong house.”

Standing in the doorway beside James and Jared, Terry described the assailants approaching the house as dressed in red T-shirts carrying baseball bats.

He said one man took a handgun from another firing the weapon first at the ground and then, at the men on the porch.

“We didn’t know them. They shot for no reason,” Terry said in a recording.

Terry, an eyewitness to the June incident, died last month in a rollover crash on the Seep Ridge Road of the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation.

While authorities do not suspect foul play, the loss of an important witness like Terry Carey will impact the case against the defendants.

In recordings Terry said Bruce Silva was the one who pulled the trigger, while yelling the at group on the porch “This is Bruce’s (expletive).”

State appointed attorneys for Silva and Cesspooch questioned the veracity of witnesses citing inconsistencies in the substance of the interviews.

Judge Peterson disagreed, finding the witnesses reliable and noting consistent observations placing Silva and Cesspooch as party to the shootings.

Bruce Silva’s three brothers: Adrian Silva, 23, Alberto Silva Jr., 19, and Kevin Silva, 20, along with co-defendant Shadow Reed, 23, rejected a plea agreement and have all opted to go to trial on felony charges of murder, attempted murder and aggravated assault.

Week-long trial dates have been tentatively set for each, beginning with Kevin’s on Jan. 9, Adrian’s on Jan 23, Alberto’s on Feb. 6, and Reed’s on March 5.

Teaunna Cesspooch and Bruce Silva will return to Eighth District Court for status hearings on Jan. 25.