Update: Man, 21, faces murder charge in shooting death of his mother in Pleasant Grove

Pleasant Grove police investigators on the scene of a fatal shooting early Friday morning, May 20, 2022. Photo: Gephardt Daily/Monico Garza/SLCScanner

PLEASANT GROVE, Utah, May 20, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — A 21-year-old man has been charged with murder in the shooting death of his mother in Pleasant Grove late Thursday night.

In addition to the first-degree murder charge, Gage Anthony Dinehart is facing a charge of obstruction of justice, a class A misdemeanor.

According to a probable cause statement filed in Utah County by an officer of the Pleasant Grove Police Department, police were dispatched at 11:45 p.m. to a call of multiple gunshots in the area of 210 West and 200 North.

The caller reported hearing three gunshots and seeing a body in the middle of the road, near a blue Chevrolet Tahoe. Both doors on the Tahoe were open, the caller said.

The Tahoe was parked behind a gray Dodge Ram 2500.

“Upon arrival, officers confirmed the victim was deceased,” the charging document states, adding that blood was visible on the victim’s head and there appeared to be a bullet hole in the chest.

While paramedics were near the scene, they were approached by a man who was “acting erratically” and who allegedly told them he had committed a crime and was involved in the shooting.

Officers located the man, later identified as Gage Dinehart, the victim’s biological son.

“Officers found and recovered a handgun at the Pleasant Grove Cemetery,” the document says. “Gage told officers ‘I shot my mom.’ He told officers the gun he used was in the grass near his hoodie. Officers located the gun and hoodie at approximately 500 N. 100 E., where Gage stated the gun would be.”

The victim’s husband told detectives that Gage Dinehart had been at the apartment  shared by the victim and her husband, and that Dinehart was “agitated and demanding money from his mother,” according to the document.

The victim told her husband she was leaving to go to the bank and would take Dinehart “back to the bar.”

The husband told detectives there are video cameras on both the Dodge Ram and the Chevy Tahoe, as well as cameras inside and outside of the apartment.

Detectives also spoke with a neighbor whose window is directly across from the scene. The neighbor stated that he heard two shots, got up, and looked out the window, where he saw a man in a black hoodie standing over the victim, the reporting officer wrote in the document.

The neighbor saw a muzzle flash and heard a gunshot, then saw the shooter run away, according to the document.

Some of the surveillance video officers retrieved showed Dinehart and the victim leave the house and go to the victim’s vehicle, after which three gunshots and the victim’s scream are heard, the document states.

Gage Dinehart was booked into jail early Friday morning.

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