Murder suspect in custody after SLC parking-lot shooting

UPDATE: June 15, 2022 — Jared Charles Lance faces first-degree murder charges for the killing.

SALT LAKE CITY — Police say a man that shot and killed a man in a  parked car at a Salt Lake lot while free on bail and a fugitive — is now in police custody.

Detectives with Salt Lake City Police Department said in a release that 41-year-old Jared Lance, was found and arrested Tuesday on suspicion of murder for a fatal shooting just before noon on Sunday, May 29. Lance, a fugitive on a federal warrant, was awaiting trial on a previous felony charge.

“Suspect has been a fugitive for months avoiding apprehension on a federal warrant for a probation violation on possession of a weapon,” court documents say.

According to police, Lance pulled into a parking lot off West Temple at 1790 South in a white four-door Honda Accord and blocked Rober Barros, 40, already parked there in a silver Chevy Impala, from leaving. Lance is accused of getting out of the Honda and shooting and killing Barros.

Probable cause documents state Barros stumbled away and died with a gunshot wound to his upper chest and middle back while Lance got in the Impala and drove it away, heading north on West Temple.

Witnesses said a second person got in the driver’s seat of the Honda and drove it away, heading south on West Temple, with witness statements corroborated by surveillance footage. The identity of the second driver has not been released and SLCPD said the investigation is still ongoing.

Investigators said they later located both vehicles involved in the killing, finding a cell phone and identification card for Lance in the Honda, located near the scene of the shooting while the Impala was found in Kearns, at a home.

Police interviewed a woman who said she leant the Impala to Barros, who had not returned it. She told detectives she and Lance borrowed the Honda with the intent to bring the Impala back to her. Surveillance video reportedly shows Lance leaving a Kearns home alone in the Honda at 10:50 a.m.  and returning in the Impala alone at 12:03 p.m.

Video is also said to show the woman in Kearns, not identified by police, cleaning out the driver’s area of the Impala and taking items out of it, including a hat from the trunk. Back-yard surveillance video later shows Lance carrying a box, that seemed to contain multiple items. His clothing in the back-yard video is different than the all-black clothes he was recorded in earlier.

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Documents say Lance placed the box in a fire pit and started a fire, with wood and lighter fluid. The unidentified woman was shown bringing the hat she removed from the trunk and placing it in the fire pit.

Phone records show “multiple calls” from the woman to Lance after he returned to the Kearns home. She told detectives in an interview that they were trying to find Lance’s phone. That phone and his driver license were found in the Honda by investigators.

Documents said that phone data shows it left the Kearns home at the time when Lance was shown doing so on surveillance footage and then being in the area of the shooting when Barrows was killed.

Police said Lance is also suspected of possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person and obstruction of justice. Lance is in custody at the Salt Lake County jail. Booking photos are no longer public documents.