Jail escape: Two killers on the loose in Daggett County

By Erin Alberty
The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated: 9:57 AM- Two convicted murderers have escaped the Daggett County Jail and a manhunt is under way today to recapture them.

Danny Martin Gallegos, 49, and Juan Carlos Diaz-Arevalo, 27, escaped Sunday afternoon. A helicopter was being used in the search.

Gallegos admitted to guilty killing 18-year-old Tammy Syndergaard 17 years ago. The night of March 11, 1990, Gallegos hid in a closet at the South Salt Lake apartment of his ex-girlfriend, Stephanie Groves, while she watched a movie with Syndergaard and a male friend.

When the movie ended, Gallegos, in an apparent jealous rage, jumped out, shot Syndergaard in the back of the head and chased the other two into a bedroom, where he fired shots through the door before fleeing.

Gallegos later pleaded guilty to capital murder, but a 3rd District judge decided against the death penalty. A psychiatrist claimed Gallegos was mentally ill and had endured years of abuse by his father.

He was denied parole in 2005, when his next hearing was scheduled for 2025.

Relatives then compared the parole board's decision to a life sentence.
Diaz-Arevalo had served one year for killing his ex-girlfriend, 22-year-old Lindsey Rae Fawson. On May 16, 2005, Diaz-Arevalo hid in the trunk of Fawson's car, which she drove to his Murray home with her
sister and then-3-year-old son to collect some things after leaving what was described as a violent relationship with Diaz-Arevalo.

After she drove back to her home, Diaz-Arevalo emerged from the trunk and tried to get into her car. When Fawson and her sister fought back, Diaz-Arevalo shot Fawson in the face as her son watched from the back seat.

Diaz-Arevalo pleaded guilty to first-degree-felony murder; possession of a firearm by a restricted person, a second-degree felony, and domestic violence in the presence of a child, a third-degree felony. At the sentencing, Diaz-Arevalo asked his judge to let him withdraw his guilty plea, claiming the shooting was an accident and he'd had inadequate legal counsel.

The judge refused, and he was sentenced to seven years to life in prison.

Diaz-Arevalo, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, is a gang member and drug dealer who returned to the United States after he was deported on gun charges, prosecutors said.

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