9/17/22
Following a preliminary hearing at the Riverside Hall of Justice, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Bernard Schwartz ruled there was sufficient evidence to sustain the murder charge and a special circumstance allegation of lying in wait against Owen Shover.
However, the hearing resulted in the murder charge being dismissed against Gary Shover and substituted with a felony allegation of being an accessory after the fact.
Schwartz scheduled a post-preliminary hearing arraignment for the brothers on Oct. 5 at the Riverside courthouse.
He ordered that both defendants remain held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta.
According to sheriff’s officials, the brothers were identified as suspects in Briones’ disappearance and death following a weeks-long investigation that ended in February 2019, when the siblings were taken into custody without incident at their residence on Grevillea Street, near Old Ranch Road.
Briones was last seen on Jan. 13, 2019, in Moreno Valley Community Park, at the intersection of Cottonwood Avenue and Frederick Street, where she had been visiting with friends and relatives.
Sheriff’s Lt. Chris Durham said at the time that Owen Shover, a friend of Briones from Moreno Valley High School, was the last person to have seen her alive.