SALT LAKE CITY — A man who claimed he didn’t mean to kill another man shot the victim eight times, according to police
Christopher Travis Herrera, 31, of Vernal, has been arrested and booked into the Uintah County Jail. He was formally charged Tuesday afternoon in 8th District Court with murder, a first-degree felony.
On June 3, Vernal police responded to an apartment complex where they found the front door to one of the units open and a man “lying on the living room floor that appeared to have been shot multiple times,” a police affidavit states.
Witnesses told officers they had seen Herrera running through the area holding a pistol, according to the affidavit. Adult Probation and Parole agents helped officers track down Herrera, who was on probation.
Herrera ran from a vehicle that was pulled over by the officers and then barricaded himself in a residence for two hours before being taken into custody, police say.
When interviewed by detectives, Herrera said the victim had come over to talk to him about buying a gun.
“Christopher made the statements that he didn’t mean to kill him, and ‘I wanted to hurt him but I didn’t want to kill him.’ Christopher also stated, ‘I think he deserved it, because (he) was acting like he was hard,” the affidavit states.
An autopsy determined the victim was shot eight times. Police have not yet released the victim’s name or any other details about him.
“It was found two of the gunshots were from the front and the remaining gunshots were from behind or above,” according to the affidavit.
When interviewed a second time, Herrera “made statements about how (the victim) was going to shoot first. Christopher also made statements about how he meant to do what he did to the male gunshot victim, but didn’t want to kill him,” the affidavit says.