Jeremiah Aviles was an 18-year-old senior and football player at Red Mountain High School in Mesa, Arizona, with plans to study business at Arizona State University. A Hispanic/Latino male, Jeremiah was described by friends as a "radiant soul" who could be counted on to show up every day with a smile on his face. His mother remembered him as a humble and amazing young man.
He was on the cusp of graduation when his life was cut short.
In the early morning hours of May 7, 2023, Jeremiah was at the Mesa home of a football teammate, Peter Clabron III, located on the 2300 block of East Camino Street. Just before 2 a.m., while in Clabron’s bedroom with Clabron and another witness, Jeremiah was fatally shot. When Mesa police officers arrived, they found him deceased at the scene.
The initial investigation was complicated by false statements. Clabron, also 18, and the other witness initially told officers a misleading story, attempting to blame someone who was not in the room when the shooting occurred. Clabron reportedly told a 911 operator that the gun "went off" and the person with the gun had left. However, the witness later went to investigators unsolicited and admitted their original statement was false.
After executing a search warrant, police found video evidence on Clabron’s phone that showed him pointing a firearm at Jeremiah several times in the moments leading up to the fatal shot. The investigation also revealed that just hours earlier, witnesses had seen Clabron firing a handgun into the air from the back of a truck in his neighborhood. On May 11, 2023, Peter Clabron III was arrested and booked into jail.
Clabron was charged with manslaughter and unlawful discharge of a firearm, and he pleaded not guilty. The case proceeded to an 11-day jury trial. During the trial, the defense argued that forensic evidence and the medical examiner's report contradicted the account of a key prosecution witness. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office later noted that the prosecution was made significantly more difficult by the death of a key witness.
In July 2026, a jury found Peter Clabron III not guilty of manslaughter, and he was acquitted of the charges related to Jeremiah's death. He was ordered to be released from custody. In the wake of the verdict, Jeremiah's family established the Jeremiah Aviles Foundation in his honor, providing character-driven scholarships to high school students to keep his legacy alive.
