On a late summer morning in Midvale, Utah, the life of 21-year-old Deondre Baldwin was tragically cut short. On September 3, 2016, emergency services were called to the Brighton Place Apartment Complex on Plum Tree Lane around 9:55 a.m. following reports of a shooting. Inside one of the apartments, they found Deondre Baldwin and 20-year-old Brenner Larson with gunshot wounds. Both men were rushed to a local hospital, where Baldwin succumbed to his injuries.
Larson was left in critical condition from the attack.
The tragic events began to unfold when two men, later identified as 28-year-old Jonathon William Rodgers and 36-year-old Christopher Bailey, entered the apartment without permission. A third individual present in the apartment, who was unharmed, told police the intruders were demanding money and drugs. Rodgers was reportedly pointing a gun at the occupants while Bailey held Larson in a headlock, threatening him with a butane torch. A physical altercation then broke out between Bailey and Baldwin. As the struggle ensued, Brenner Larson moved towards Rodgers, pleading with him not to shoot. Rodgers then fired his weapon, striking Larson in the stomach before fatally shooting Baldwin in the chest.
In the days following the shooting, police launched a search for the two male suspects. Their investigation led them to Jonathon Rodgers, who was arrested in Ogden and booked on suspicion of murder. His accomplice, Christopher Bailey, was apprehended in the Rose Park area and initially held on a federal probation violation. Rodgers was ultimately charged with aggravated murder, aggravated attempted murder, aggravated burglary, and aggravated robbery. Bailey faced charges as an accomplice, including murder, aggravated robbery, and aggravated burglary. The violent home invasion left one young man dead and another with life-altering injuries, severing his spine.
