Sentenced for 2021 Christmas Eve Homicide
Today, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill announced a judge sentenced Coda Benjamin Verucchi to five years to life for aggravated robbery and one to 15 years for manslaughter.
On December 25, 2021, police responded to a welfare check at the Gene Fullmer Recreation Center in West Jordan. When they arrived, they found a deceased juvenile male, later identified as K.G. There were three shell casings next to the body and a shoe print in the mud.
Later, on December 27, 2021, investigators were informed about an incident in West Valley City where a juvenile and two males stole a vehicle from a driveway. In that case, the defendants had been followed by a witness, who then told a police officer nearby what had taken place; that officer tried to stop the stolen vehicle, but it sped away. However, the vehicle later lost control. Even though the defendants ran, they were taken into custody a short time later and identified as Coda Benjamin Verucchi and Jedediah Newsome.
During an interview for the stolen car, Jedediah Newsome admitted that he and Verucchi had been part of a homicide on December 24, 2021, in West Jordan near the recreation center. Newsome told investigators that K.G. was shot because he was trying to “get put on” with a gang that Newsome and Verucchi were in, but K.G. was already in another gang. Newsome told police he and Verucchi had talked to K.G. and told him to think about joining the gang overnight. Newsome started to walk away from Verucchi and K.G., but he told police he heard two gunshots, so he went back, grabbed a gun from Verucchi, and shot K.G. twice. The co-defendants then ran away.
In August of 2022, Newsome pleaded guilty to first-degree felony murder of K.G. and was sentenced to 15 years to life at the Utah State Correctional Facility.
On Thursday, April 24, 2025, a judge sentenced Verucchi to five years to life for one count of first-degree felony aggravated robbery and one to 15 years for one count of second-degree felony manslaughter. The judge set the sentences to run consecutively.
“We hope this sentence helps provide some measure of justice for K.G.’s family and loved ones. We have recently worked closely with our state lawmakers to try and stem the involvement of youth in gangs, to try and prevent senseless deaths like this one,” said Salt Lake County District Attorney. “We appreciate the years of work by our prosecutors and support staff. We thank the West Jordan and West Valley City police departments for their thorough investigations that helped lead to these convictions.”