Man said someone else shot his girlfriend, but jail call gave him away, UT officials say
A man accused in a “brutal domestic violence” attack that left his girlfriend dead was convicted of a murder charge after a six-day trial in Utah, prosecutors said.
Terence Trent Vos “told police that someone else shot” Shandon Scott, but he shared a different story with a friend in a phone call from behind bars, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office said in a March 21 news release.
A jury found him guilty of multiple felony charges, including one count of first-degree felony aggravated murder, plus a misdemeanor charge, according to prosecutors.
McClatchy News reached out to Vos’ attorneys March 24 and was awaiting a response.
During the trial, Vos testified that he didn’t kill Scott, and that instead he’d been the intended target of two shooters, KUTV reported.
Scott, 32, was a student, a cosmetologist and mother of two, an online obituary said.
Police were called to a crash on Interstate 80 on May 1, 2021, and “initial reports were that a female in the vehicle was deceased from many gunshot wounds,” prosecutors said.
A crash witness who pulled over “saw (Vos) in the driver’s seat and Ms. Scott in the passenger seat,” and Scott “had blood on her and was not moving,” according to prosecutors.
“(Vos) tried to take the witness’s vehicle, but the witness stopped him. Shortly, law enforcement arrived on scene and started attending to Ms. Scott,” and Vos ran off, according to prosecutors.
He was arrested soon after, prosecutors said.
In a phone call from behind bars, Vos told a friend that he and Scott “had gotten into a fight, and he shot her,” and that he’d made up that someone else had done it, prosecutors said.
“I am proud of the work done by our homicide team in one of the most brutal domestic violence attacks we have prosecuted,” Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said in the news release, adding that “we hope Ms. Scott’s family and loved ones feel that this guilty verdict provides some measure of justice for their sister, daughter, and friend.”
Scott’s obituary said she was passionate about cosmetics and hair, and she’d frequently take care of the hair of loved ones. She “also loved hiking, painting, traveling, singing, dancing, going to the gym and watching movies (especially scary and paranormal movies),” and “anyone who met Shandon immediately saw her outgoing personality,” according to the obituary.
Her children, the obituary said, were “the two loves of her life.”
Vos is scheduled to be sentenced in May, KUTV reported.
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