Woman sentenced in connection with West Valley City golf course slaying

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Before a judge sentenced her to serve 15 years to life in prison for her role in last year's slaying of JoJo Lee Brandstatt on a West Valley City golf course, Shardise "Kaiso" Malaga gave a tearful apology to the victim's family.

"I am truly, truly sorry for what happened to your son," the 20-year-old woman said Monday in 3rd District Court. "He wasn't supposed to be there. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Brandstatt, 18, was allegedly shot and killed -- in part for wearing the color of a rival gang -- by Malaga's cousin, Antonie Hunter Farani. He was then 14.

Brandstatt's mother, Elka Fernandez, said the pain of her loss will never go away. But she also told Malaga: "If JoJo was here, he'd say, 'It's OK, I forgive you.' That's how he was."

Fernandez said the only thing she wanted from Malaga was that she "make a decision to change her life . . . so this doesn't happen to anyone else."

Malaga later replied: "I promise I won't let your son's death be in vain."

Malaga was originally charged with one count of murder, two counts of aggravated kidnapping and five counts of aggravated robbery -- all first-degree felonies.

Earlier this year, she pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree felony manslaughter and the two aggravated kidnapping counts. As part of the plea deal, she agreed to testify against Farani, whose case has been transferred from juvenile court to adult court.

Malaga also pleaded guilty to burglary and theft, both second-degree felonies, in an unrelated case in which she helped break into the home of a former roommate of Gregory Brown in January 2009. Brown, a drug dealer, is the person Malaga and other co-defendants allegedly kidnapped along with Brandstatt the day Brandstatt died.

Judge William Barrett called the shooting "tragic -- a young man loses his life, and Ms. Malaga loses part of her life."

The judge declined to sentence Malaga to lesser terms of either six or 10 years to life, as requested by defense attorney David Shapiro.

But Barrett did run all the counts concurrently as recommended by prosecutor Stephen Nelson, who said Malaga had earned a break by providing pivotal testimony at a juvenile court hearing held for Farani last year. Farani, now 15, was ordered to be tried as an adult.

Malaga testified she tried to talk her cousin out of the killing on Feb. 6, 2009. But Malaga said her cousin was known for having a temper and served as a gang leader on the day of the murder. She testified her cousin thought Brandstatt "knew too much" about the group's decision to kidnap and rob Brown, Brandstatt's friend, earlier that day.

Brown said he was kidnapped by the four defendants when he met them at a West Valley City Wendy's restaurant to trade marijuana for a gun. The group robbed him and said if Brown was able to get $2,000 by the end of the night through robberies, they wouldn't kill him, he told the court.

According to Brown, he called Brandstatt, who agreed to meet up with the group at Kearns Junior High School with the address of a gang member to rob, he said. When he arrived, Brandstatt was wearing a red T-shirt and red shoelaces, a color that indicated a connection to Norteño gang members. Brown alleged Farani said, "Let's just finish off this Norte."

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