Accessory to triple homicide sentenced

On Monday, a man pleaded guilty to helping Bear River triple murderer Mauricio Johnson flee from authorities after he fatally shot three people, a mother, her fiancee and daughter, in 2021.

Von Eric Keener, who also faced parole violations and failing to register as a sex offender charges, was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison, but with his 768 days of credit from his time spent in custody before he pleaded guilty, he is expected serve roughly 18 months of that sentence.

Keener was Johnson’s mother’s boyfriend at the time of the attempted escape.

The sentencing was not satisfactory for relatives of the three murder victims, and they urged Judge Kaleb Cockrum to reject the plea agreement, calling instead for the District Attorney’s Office to file homicide and child abuse charges against Keener, who was present and in custody for the hearing.

“I never want to minimize how this monster harmed our family,” Jewel Frank, the foster mother of Nikki Metcalf, one of the victims, said.

The desire for homicide charges stems from the fact that Margaret Moon, one of the victims, lived for about four hours after being shot and Frank said she might have been saved if Keener had called the police. Family members called for child abuse charges because the three shooting victims were discovered by a 13-year-old Jane Doe and her 11-year-old brother, who were Moon’s young children.

Sandra Keisner, grandmother of Shelly Moon, Margaret’s 16-year-old daughter and victim of the shooting, urged the court to allow for greater punishment than agreed upon in Keener’s plea agreement.

“She (Margaret Moon) was alive while you aided and abetted in the unsuccessful escape,” Keisner said through tears while she read her victim impact statement to the court.

Rees told Cockrum that he did not believe either of those charges could be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, so his office will not pursue those allegations.

When making his ruling, Cockrum acknowledged that sometimes the law does not provide satisfactory conclusions for victims and their families.

“The pain caused to you is much greater than the charges,” Cockrum said to Frank and Keisner.

Keener, who has 60 days to appeal his sentence, disagreed with