OGDEN — A man was booked into the Weber County Jail for investigation of the killing of a 19-year-old man Saturday following a brutal beating in an apartment.
The victim's body was found in a second-floor apartment at 2555 Quincy Ave. at 2:45 a.m. The victim, Eric Delgado, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Just before noon Saturday, police arrested Steven Lee Johnson. The man, 24, was spotted walking in a park near the scene.
Johnson and Delgado apparently got into a fight at the apartment, police say. Although investigators would not release a motive Saturday, they said the men's actions may have been the result of "drug-induced behavior."
At one point during the fight, Delgado was thrown out the window of the second-story apartment and then dragged back inside. In addition to being severely beaten, police were also investigating whether Delgado was strangled.
Neighbors said they didn't hear anything unusual Saturday morning from the small apartment complex, which has three units downstairs and two upstairs.
Jan Warren lives in the house next door. She said she heard people going up and down stairs late in the evening, but that was nothing unusual.
Ed Valdez, who lives two doors down from the scene, said he didn't hear any signs of trouble until shortly before 3 a.m. when he heard a man and a woman screaming.
Investigators set up a crime scene and looked for evidence both in the apartment and the area outside the apartment window.
Neighbors said anytime there is trouble on their street, it usually comes from that complex. But Warren said everything had been quiet lately.
Other neighbors said the people who lived in the apartment where the slaying occurred had moved in just five days ago.
Police Saturday were interviewing others who were in the apartment at the time of the slaying but did not anticipate any more arrests. Johnson was already wanted for being a fugitive from parole.
The slaying marks the sixth this year in Ogden, matching the city's total for all of last year, according to the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification.
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