SOUTH JORDAN, Utah, Oct. 11, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — Another arrest has been made in the death of a Salt Lake City man found deceased in his burning car.
“Today, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office charged a fifth person, Cavell Eddie Tupai, in connection to the death of Joseph “Gino” Montoya,” the district attorney’s office said Tuesday afternoon in a press release on social media. No other details were released.
The body of Montoya, 50, Salt Lake City, was found in the trunk of the car after the fire was doused at 11716 S. Bingham Rim Road in South Jordan on Thanksgiving Day 2022.
The first arrest in the case came in February of this year — Dillon Edward Noble, 300, charged with murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault and obstruction of justice.
Investigators learned the Drug Enforcement Administration had a tracker on a car, a Jaguar, that had been at the location where the burning car and body were discovered.
An investigation into the Jaguar owner eventually led police to another man, Noble, according to Noble’s charging documents.
The Jaguar owner reportedly said “Dillon and (Montoya) got into an argument and (the Jaguar owner) was knocked unconscious, so he did not know how G.M. was killed,” Noble’s probable cause statement says.
The Jaguar owner later told investigators he saw Noble and another man load Montoya into the trunk of Montoya’s car, and that Noble “stayed behind and destroyed the camera system” at the residence.
The Jaguar owner, who had not yet been charged, admitted to police, post Miranda, that he “lit the car on fire,” according to Noble’s probable cause statement.
