Man convicted of murdering former schoolmate whose body has not been found

A man who killed a 16-year-old Moreno Valley girl because she got him expelled from school and hid her body somewhere in the San Bernardino Mountains was sentenced today to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

A Riverside jury deliberated for barely a day in August before convicting 23-year-old Owen Skyler Shover of Hesperia of first-degree murder and a special circumstance charge of ambushing the 2019 death of Aranda Briones.

During a hearing Friday at the Riverside Hall of Justice, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Timothy Hollenhorst imposed the statutory sentence.

“The victim didn’t deserve this. She was just a child,” District Attorney Mike Hestrin told City News Service. “She had her whole life ahead of her.” This was a tremendous loss – all because of one person's decision. It's really heartbreaking.

Hestrin decided to take on the prosecution himself not because the case presented unique challenges, but because “it's good for the elected prosecutor to have a trial every now and then.”

“It keeps me connected to the work we do in court and it's a good reminder to me of how difficult the work is day in and day out,” he said.

Shover's brother, 27-year-old Gary Anthony Shover of Hesperia, admitted to being an accomplice last March as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors. He was sentenced to a twelve-month suspended sentence.

According to Hestrin's trial memorandum, Aranda and Shover attended Moreno Valley High School in the fall of 2017. The victim was a “troubled” teenager whose parents were absent, and she had been adopted by her grandfather Carl Horskotte and lived with him at the age of 3 in his home on Via Vargas Drive.

Hestrin said that on the morning of Nov. 7, 2017, Aranda decided to join her friends, including Shover, at Community Park instead of attending class. A sheriff's school officer searching for truants spotted the teens and went to talk to them, causing the teens to flee.

Shover had a small caliber pistol in his possession and threw it at Aranda, shouting for her to hide it. The victim got scared and immediately threw him into a drain. However, the deputy discovered her in the act and later arrested and interrogated her along with the school administration. That's when she announced that Shover was the one with the gun, Hestrin said.

The matter was brought before the local school board in February 2018, and members voted to expel Aranda and Shover. She enrolled in a nearby high school, while Shover moved out of his mother's home in Moreno Valley, moved to his father's home and enrolled in a high school in Hesperia. But he was outraged at being expelled and what he obviously saw as Aranda's betrayal.

“He’s a stone-cold killer,” Hestrin told CNS. “On the day of his sentencing, he spoke to his grandfather from prison and wondered whether he should get 'a trophy' for being a convicted murderer. He showed no remorse.”

Investigators with the sheriff's Central Homicide Unit later discovered a series of Snapchat, Facebook and other conversations the defendant initiated between November 2018 and January 2019 in which he attempted to purchase a firearm, the filing said.

Eventually he got one.

On Jan. 12, 2019, Shover contacted Aranda via text message and invited her to join him the next day while he made drug deliveries and “robbed drug dealers,” the letter said. She agreed to meet him and the two of them at Bayside Park on January 13, 2019, shortly before 5 p.m. Hestrin said that while two of her friends watched, Aranda got into the defendant's Nissan Versa and he and she drove north toward Box Springs Mountain.

Within an hour, she posted several pictures on social media showing her and Shover in his car, expressing her joy at being with her “buddy” who let her do some of the driving.

Cell tower “pings,” Moreno Valley’s citywide camera system and surveillance cameras mounted outside homes tracked the Nissan’s occupants around Box Springs Mountain. According to court documents, the vehicle turned north toward San Bernardino toward a mobile home park shortly before 6 p.m.

On the way, Shover contacted his brother on Facebook and said, “Be ready for tonight. Have shovels and lighter fluid ready,” the letter said.

According to the story, the defendant picked up Gary Shover from the park and the two drove north on state highways 138 and 18 into the San Bernardino Mountains. Between 8:33 p.m. and 10:14 p.m., the defendant turned off his cell phone, making the signal unreadable. It was reactivated after he reached his father's house at 16210 Grevillea St.

“Out in these mountains there are sheer cliffs, 1,000-foot drops,” Hestrin said.

In the weeks that followed, Aranda's family and friends filed reports with the sheriff's department, believing Aranda had committed a crime. The investigation produced “extensive and convincing evidence that the defendant meticulously planned and carried out Aranda’s murder,” the brief states.

One of the salient points was a search of the Nissan during which the Luminol blood detector was sprayed into the trunk, which revealed the presence of a significant amount of blood that had accumulated on the floor
“The trunk, under the carpet,” says Hestrin.
DNA was taken from the vehicle and he said that was ultimately the case
determined to keep up with Aranda.
Neither Owen nor Gary Shover had a criminal record.
Police forces and volunteer groups searched it
Mountains where they believe Aranda's remains were disposed of, but no
No trace of her has ever been found.