Man found guilty of killing 16-year-old schoolmate and hiding body in San Bernardino Mountains

A man was found guilty of first-degree murder Wednesday after killing a 16-year-old Morena Valley girl because she expelled him from school, then hiding her body somewhere in the San Bernardino Mountains.

After just over a day of deliberations, a jury in Riverside returned its verdict against Owen Skyler Shover, 23, of Hesperiav, and also found the charge of faking the death of Aranda Briones in 2019 to be true due to special circumstances.

Shover, who is being held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

His brother, 27-year-old Gary Anthony Shover of Hesperia, admitted to being an accessory after the fact as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors in March and was sentenced to 12 months probation.

According to District Attorney Mike Hestrin's case file, Aranda and Shover attended Moreno Valley High School in the fall of 2017.

Hestrin said that on the morning of Nov. 7, 2017, Aranda decided to join her friends, including Shover, at the community park instead of going to class. A sheriff's security officer searching for truants spotted the teens in the park and spoke with them, after which the youths fled in different directions. Shover had a small-caliber handgun with him and threw it at Aranda while yelling at her to hide it, according to court records.

The victim became frightened and immediately threw the gun into a sewer. However, the police officer caught her in the act and later arrested and questioned her along with school administrators. She admitted that Shover had the gun on him, Hestrin said.

The matter came before the local school board in February 2018, and members voted to expel Aranda and Shover. She was enrolled in a nearby high school while Shover moved out of his mother's house in Moreno Valley, into his father's house and attended a high school in Hesperia. But he was angry about his expulsion and what he clearly perceived as a betrayal by Aranda.

Detectives from the sheriff's homicide unit later discovered a series of Snapchat, Facebook and other conversations the defendant had between November 2018 and January 2019. In those conversations, he attempted to purchase a firearm, the filing states. He eventually obtained one.

On Jan. 12, 2019, Shover contacted Aranda via text message and invited her to accompany him the next day while he made drug deliveries and “robbed drug dealers,” the summary states. She arranged to meet him at Bayside Park, and the two met shortly before 5 p.m. on Jan. 13, 2019. Hestrin said that as two of her friends watched, Aranda got into the defendant's Nissan Versa and the two 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, the letter said.

Through “pings” from cell towers, Moreno Valley's citywide camera system and security cameras outside homes in the area, the occupants of the Nissan were tracked around Box Springs Mountain for about 20 minutes. According to court documents, the vehicle turned north toward San Bernardino, toward a mobile home park, just before 6 p.m.

On the way, Shover contacted his brother via Facebook and told him: “Be ready for tonight. Have shovels and lighter fluid ready,” the message said.

The defendant picked up Gary Shover from the park and the two drove north into the San Bernardino Mountains on state routes 138 and 18. Between 8:33 p.m. and 10:14 p.m., the defendant turned off his cellphone, rendering the signal unreadable. It was reactivated after he reached his father's house at 16210 Grevillea St., prosecutors said.

In the weeks that followed, Aranda's family and friends filed a complaint with the sheriff, believing she was the victim of a crime. The investigation was initially treated as a missing persons investigation, “but then became a murder investigation (because investigators) found extensive and compelling evidence that the defendant meticulously planned and executed Aranda's murder,” Hestrin wrote.

Key points included a search of the Nissan, during which the trunk was sprayed with the blood-detecting luminol, which Hestrin said showed “the possible presence of a significant amount of blood that had accumulated in the bottom of the trunk under the carpet.”

DNA was taken from the vehicle and he said it was ultimately determined to be a match to Aranda.

Police officers and volunteer groups have searched the mountains where they believe Aranda's remains may have been dumped, but no trace of her has ever been found.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Timothy Hollenhorst has scheduled a sentencing hearing for October 25 at the Riverside Hall of Justice.