A judge ordered five prison terms to run consecutively for the 2021 shooting that killed two young men and wounded a teenager.

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — In Utah, a man who admitted killing two young men and wounding a teenage girl at a crowded house party will spend at least 45 years in prison after a judge ordered all five of his sentences to run consecutively. Patrocinio Perez, 24, was sentenced Aug. 24 for the Aug. 15, 2021, shooting deaths of Ivan Valenzuela, 18, and Juan Valentine Rodriguez, 19, at a home in Magna, west of Salt Lake City.

Third District Judge Heather Brereton imposed two terms of 15 years to life for aggravated murder and three terms of five years to life for felony discharge of a firearm. By making all five terms consecutive, Brereton set a minimum of 45 years before Perez can potentially be released. The judge described the killings as “horrendous” and “senseless” and said the effects reached well beyond the two people who died. A third victim, Autumn Baker, was 17 when she was wounded, while dozens of other young people were at the party when the gunfire broke out.

The sentence closed a case that began nearly five years earlier with officers arriving at a house where investigators said between 30 and 50 teenagers and young adults had gathered. Police found Rodriguez dead inside the home and Valenzuela critically wounded. Valenzuela was taken to a hospital, where he died. Baker was found with a gunshot wound to her arm and was also taken for treatment. What initially confronted police as a chaotic crime scene later developed into a case built from witness information, digital location evidence, social-media activity and statements Perez made after his arrest.

At the sentencing hearing, Salt Lake County prosecutor Vincent Meister argued that the killings justified consecutive sentences because each victim represented a separate and lasting harm. Meister told the court that Perez moved toward Rodriguez and Valenzuela without warning, approaching in a way intended to avoid detection before opening fire. Prosecutors said Rodriguez was shot at close range and Valenzuela was shot seconds later. Baker was struck by the same burst of violence. Meister also pointed to the many partygoers who witnessed the shooting or its immediate aftermath, saying the crime changed far more lives than those of the three people who were struck.

The court heard those consequences directly from victims and relatives. Baker wrote that the shooting changed her from an outgoing teenager into someone who struggled with sleep, loud noises and post-traumatic stress. Valenzuela’s sister told the judge that she did not want her brother reduced to another statistic from gun violence. She described the way his absence continued to shape ordinary moments for the family, including the guilt that could accompany laughter or happiness. The statements shifted the hearing from the mechanics of prison terms to what relatives described as a loss that remained present five years after the killings.

Prosecutors said the attack was not preceded by a confrontation that could explain the sudden gunfire. According to charging documents and statements attributed to Perez after his arrest, he did not know Rodriguez or Valenzuela by name. Perez told investigators that he believed the two were speaking negatively about his friends. Meister also told the court that Perez had claimed he noticed a hairstyle he associated with a rival gang, although prosecutors said neither victim had that haircut. Meister rejected the suggestion that Perez had acted in self-defense, describing the shooting as an ambush rather than a response to an immediate threat.

Investigators developed Perez as a suspect after receiving reports that he had told other people he was responsible. Authorities said call-detail records, Uber information and Snapchat location data placed him in the area of the Magna home shortly before and after the shooting. Perez later told investigators that a girl on Snapchat had sent him the party address and that a friend drove him there. According to the charging account, Perez said he went inside, shot Rodriguez and Valenzuela and left. Investigators said he also described obtaining the gun before the shooting and getting rid of it afterward.

His online activity became another part of the prosecution’s account. At sentencing, Meister said Perez had used social media to boast about firearms and ammunition after the killings, including posts about “upgrading his belt” and ammunition he called “ultra lethal.” Those statements were cited not as the cause of the shooting but as evidence prosecutors said showed his attitude afterward. Authorities had also received reports that Perez discussed being the shooter with other people, including individuals identified by investigators as gang members. The combination of those reported admissions and location records helped focus the investigation on him.

The case eventually moved toward a negotiated resolution rather than a murder trial. Perez pleaded guilty to two aggravated murder counts and three firearm-discharge counts. Under the plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to recommend 15 years to life on each aggravated murder count instead of 25 years to life. Charges that included obstruction of justice and possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person were dismissed, and the agreement resolved or dismissed charges in other pending matters as specified in the deal. The reduced minimum on the murder counts gave Brereton less severe individual sentences than Perez otherwise could have faced, but the judge retained the ability to decide whether the terms would overlap or be served one after another.

That decision became the central issue at sentencing. Defense attorney Rudy Bautista told the court that Perez had come to understand how wrong his earlier conduct had been and now valued life differently. Perez also addressed the victims’ families and apologized. Brereton nevertheless said she regarded the plea agreement as a “gift” given the number of people harmed. She emphasized that Perez had killed two people, wounded another and exposed a house full of young people to the immediate consequences of gun violence. She then followed the recommended ranges but ordered the five sentences to run consecutively, producing the 45-year minimum.

The long-running prosecution also intersected with other accusations against Perez stemming from the same period. Court filings in separate cases accused him of involvement in additional shootings in 2021, and prosecutors later filed charges connected to other alleged gunfire. In 2024, while the Magna murder case was still pending, prosecutors described Perez in court documents as linked to another shooting that occurred shortly before the house-party killings. Earlier in the murder prosecution, the state had taken steps that could have exposed Perez to the death penalty if convicted at trial. The eventual plea agreement eliminated that trial risk while securing guilty pleas to both aggravated murders and the firearm offenses tied to the Magna shooting.

The sentencing also clarified an early point of confusion about how much time Perez must serve. Initial reporting from the hearing stated that the consecutive murder terms produced a minimum of 30 years, but the calculation did not include all three consecutive five-year firearm terms. The corrected total is a minimum of 45 years: 30 years from the two aggravated-murder sentences and another 15 years from the three firearm sentences. A sentence in a separate case was ordered to run concurrently, meaning it does not add to that 45-year minimum.

For the families, the final calculation did not erase the central fact of the case: Rodriguez and Valenzuela were 19 and 18 when they were killed during a party, and Baker was still a minor when she was wounded. Brereton told Perez that the consequences of his actions remained visible in the courtroom years later. With the guilty pleas accepted and the consecutive sentences imposed, the criminal case over the Magna killings has moved from prosecution to punishment, with Perez facing decades in state prison before any potential release.

Author note: Last updated September 30, 2026.