Two men with criminal histories

Two men with minor criminal histories have been arrested in connection with a fatal shooting in downtown Salt Lake City on Friday that apparently resulted from a drug deal gone bad.

First we must say no one 

should be doing drugs or selling them. 

But there should also NOT be any shooting. Good, they caught the killer!

Richard Michael Warner, 31, of West Valley City, was charged in 3rd District Court with murder, a first-degree felony, and two counts of obstructing justice, both second-degree felonies. 
On Dec. 19, Warner and Austin 31James Herring, 29, of Bluffdale, drove to 563 W. 200 South to make a drug deal with Mario Zelaya-Zuniga, 32, of Honduras, according to Salt Lake police. 

Once the deal was agreed upon, Herring got back into the driver's seat. While Zelaya-Zuniga was talking to Herring through the passenger-side window, Warner pulled out a gun and shot Zelaya-Zuniga apparently without warning in the neck, according to charging documents and a Salt Lake County Jail report. 

If one must be in a drug deal, 

they should, at least, 

have a gun for self protection, and 

ready to use it, before onother can harm you.

Warner then burned the clothes he was wearing and threw the gun in the Jordan River, the charges state. 
That sounds smart, but 
the police still got their man.

Shortly after the incident, police obtained surveillance footage of the alleged shooter and the getaway vehicle and released it to the media. 

Nothing like a surveillance footage 

to ruin your day. 

Ha

Due to the high media attention, Herring called police from his home in Bluffdale, where he lives with his parents, and turned himself in. 

<<lives with his parents>>

Oh how nice of them 

to put up with him until age 31.

Herring then gave detectives Warner's name, and they arrested him at his house in West Valley City several hours later, according to police. 

Not much honor among thieves.

According to court records, neither man has ever been convicted of a felony in Utah. Warner pleaded guilty to misdemeanor drug possession in 2002, burglary-related crimes and interfering with an arrest in 2003, and marijuana possession in 2006. 

I'd say he had a bad rap sheet. 

Remember one can reduce charges 

from a felony to 

"misdemeanor drug possesson." How about the burglary-related crimes, 

and interferring with an arrest in 2003, and marijuana possession in 2006. 

I'd say he is a chriminal offender,

 and should be locked up for a good long while. 

Herring has a conviction for shoplifting in 2006, according to state court records. He also pleaded no contest on Dec. 10 to misdemeanor theft, and was charged recently in Sandy Justice Court with another shoplifting charge and possession of drug paraphernalia for an incident that allegedly happened Dec. 18, one day before the shooting. 

Ditto the above. They are both no goods.