Pair wanted for murder in Salt Lake City hotel shooting caught near Green River

Two men wanted on suspicion of first-degree murder in a drug deal gone bad in a Salt Lake City hotel on Monday were caught hours later near Green River. One of the men called his parents and admitted “he had just shot a man,” police report.

Chino Montoya Aguilar, 21, and Carlos Samuel Chee, 23, were stopped just west of Green River at about mile marker 83 driving eastbound on Interstate 80, said Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Jason Mower. That was at 10:50 a.m., about 20 minutes after Salt Lake City police put out an alert for agencies to be on the lookout for the men.

“Yeah, I mean, it only took a few minutes before we found the vehicle,” Mower told Cowboy State Daily. The alert “caught our attention because it was advertised as two homicide suspects from Salt Lake City.”

Because they were wanted for a violent crime and assumed to be armed and dangerous, Mower said the deputy conducted a “high-risk traffic stop” — pulling the vehicle over and giving commands through a loudspeaker instead of walking up to it. The gold 2013 Toyota Camry with Texas plates pulled over right away, both men complied, and they were arrested without resistance.

“You stop them and you’re thinking, ‘Boy, I hope these guys aren’t trying to go out in a blaze of glory or something,'” Mower said. “They immediately got into handcuffs and complied with all those orders. The event itself was, thankfully, pretty low-key and went off without a hitch.”

Salt Lake City Police Dispatch got a frantic call at 6:37 a.m. reporting a shooting at the Springhill Suites hotel. The caller said her friend had just been shot in room 108. When officers arrived, they found the woman outside saying that her friend, Christian Lee, 32, “had just been shot by a man named Carlos.”

She told investigators that Chee had come to the hotel because he made a deal with Lee to bring him marijuana. Chee arrived with another man she didn’t know who was referred to as “Grumpy” — later identified as Aguilar. She said Chee was acting paranoid and hadn’t slept in several days, that he had a gun, and that the other man then shot Lee. Both fled.

Police contacted Aguilar’s parents in Clovis, New Mexico, who said their son called them after the shooting and confessed that he had just shot a man in Salt Lake City over a drug deal. Police also learned that Chee and Aguilar left the hotel in Chee’s gold Toyota Camry, which was seen on traffic cameras driving away.

The woman told police that she and Chee had connected through a dating app and arranged to meet so he could sell her pot. She described Chee as being paranoid, and he showed her he was in possession of a firearm and a large amount of marijuana in a plastic container commonly used by dispensaries. They had been hanging out when Chee got on his phone with his “cousin” and told him what room they were in. Lee then wanted her and Chee to leave. Aguilar arrived and knocked on the door. A confrontation took place between Chee and Lee. Chee pulled out a firearm and the woman fled into the bathroom. She heard a gunshot. When she left the room after the men had left, she saw Lee had been shot in the head.

Hotel surveillance video showed the woman and Chee going into the room, then Lee and Aguilar making entry. A man in a gray flannel shirt is seen passing the room at the same time, then turning around and running into room 108 while reaching into his jacket pocket. Then Aguilar and Chee are both seen running from the room.

Salt Lake City detectives arrived in Rock Springs after lunch and talked with both suspects. As of Tuesday afternoon, both men were still being held at the Sweetwater County Detention Center. A first-degree murder conviction in Utah could mean 15 years to life in prison. More severe cases charged as “aggravated” murder could mean life without parole or the death penalty.