The families of two teenage boys kidnapped and killed in Yolo County six years ago said their brutal murders were motivated by a plot seeking “revenge, hate and power” over 3 ounces of stolen marijuana.
They spoke in court Friday about the deaths of their loved ones, Enrique Rios and Elijah Moore, both 16 years old when they were last seen alive. The friends and classmates were killed in 2016 just weeks apart.
The families were invited to speak about the impact of their murders before Yolo Superior Court Judge Dave Rosenberg ordered Chandale Shannon, 25, of Winters and Jesus Campos, 22, of Woodland to spend the rest of their lives in prison without the possibliity of parole.
“I searched for my son and cried for him every day,” said Lola Rios Gutierrez, Rios’ mother. “My life is over, every day I’m depressed. I never want to go anywhere.”
A jury in May found Shannon guilty of two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Rios and Moore, along with kidnapping. The jury found Campos guilty of second-degree murder in Rios’ death and first-degree murder in Moore’s death, along with kidnapping.
Prosecutors said David Froste targeted the boys for retribution after Moore allegedly stole 3 ounces of marijuana from him. Froste targeted Rios because he believed he knew where Moore could be found.
Rios was shot dead in October 2016, and Moore was bludgeoned to death in November 2016, both in a secluded area near Knights Landing. Their bodies have never been found.
“I’m hurt beyond hurt. I’m broken beyond broken. I’m tired beyond tired. I’m sick beyond sick,” said Alicia Moore, Moore’s mother. “And I pretended like it was gonna be alright, but it got worse.”
Brothers also convicted in double murder
David Froste, the convicted ringleader of the group of friends who carried out the brutal slayings, has been sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole.
David’s brother, Jonathan Froste, unsuccessfully tried to to locate Moore and Rios’ bodies and agreed to give prosecutors information about the murders, according to a news release from the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office. He was convicted of second-degree murder and testified in court against his brother, Shannon and Campos. He will be sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
Prosecutors said Shannon suggested they contact Rios, a mutual friend of Shannon and Campos. David Froste, Shannon and Campos picked up Rios in a vehicle and Froste took him to a secluded area near Knights Landing the following day, according to the District Attorney’s Office. After Rios refused to give Moore’s location, David Froste shot him.
“You reached out to pretend you were Enrique to try and cover the fact that you guys had taken my son and murdered him,” Rios Gutierrez told Shannon in court on Friday. “You’re the murderer that gave David the idea to reach out to my son. If it wasn’t for you, he would still be here.”
Rios’ mother then chastised Campos for failing to warn her son about Froste’s revenge plot to find Moore.
“And you, Jesus, you kept saying you were Enrique’s friend, you needed him back home. You could have saved his life that night,” Rios Gutierrez told Campos. “You had the chance to text Enrique and tell him ‘Hey, these guys are gonna harm you. Don’t go with them when they call you.’”
She told the judge Shannon and Campos should never have a chance to get married or have kids, the opportunities her son lost.
“The community is a whole lot safer now that these murderers are behind bars,” Rios Gutierrez said. “They took my son’s life forever. They deserve to be behind bars for life, too.”
Details of gruesome murder
A few weeks after Rios’ murder, Campos and the Froste brothers found Moore as he left a Woodland barber shop. Prosecutors said they forced Moore into the trunk of their vehicle, then picked up Shannon, who had the gun David Froste had used to kill Rios.
Then, they tied Moore’s hands with zip-ties behind his back before marching him to a more secluded area, according to the District Attorney’s Office. Moore’s ankles were bound at this point as David Froste and Campos left to grab shovels, a pick-axe, gasoline and bleach. Prosecutors said they told Moore he was going to die and denied his requests to call his mother and let him go.
David Froste hit Moore in the head with a “baseball bat sized branch,” then dropped a large log onto his head, “crushing his skull,” prosecutors said, before the four defendants dug a hole, placed Moore into it and lit his body on fire.
Moore’s mother told the judge there’s a possibility authorities will never find her son’s body, so Shannon and Campos should spend their lives in prison.
“I need to know that they are behind bars,” Moore told the judge. “The fact that they sat there that night and decided all together with my son’s hands tied behind his back to bludgeon him to death, beat my baby’s brains out.”
Defense attorney says client was a pawn in ringleader’s game
David Nelson, Campos’ attorney, said it was David Froste’s need for “power and revenge” that led to the murders and the plot to hide the victims’ bodies.
“They were pawns in a game being played by David Froste,” Nelson told the judge. “We live in a certain time, your honor, in which we have angry young men doing terrible, terrible things in our society. And one of those angry young men was David Froste.”
Deputy District Attorney David Wilson said the murders were committed because of “something extraordinarily trivial” and the length and extent that all four defendants went to conceal their crimes only added to the “particularly egregious” nature of the murders.
“There’s not a grave site that they get to go to and place flowers or a flag or a memento, and consider the lives of their family members,” Wilson told the judge.
