Rejecting a claim of self-defense, a jury has convicted a Midvale man of fatally shooting a Park City man inside the victim’s home during a fight last year.
James Enoch Henfling, 29, was found guilty on Friday by a 3rd District Court jury of first-degree felony murder for the February 2016 death of 37-year-old Jose Fernandez.
Following an eight-day trial, the jury also convicted Henfling of second-degree felony discharge of a firearm.
Henfling faces a sentence of up to life in prison when he is sentenced on Jan. 10 by Judge Paige Petersen.
Fernandez was a well-known Park City figure who worked at the No Name Saloon & Grill and Boneyard Saloon & Wine Dive, prosecutors confirmed on Wednesday.
According to court documents, events leading up to the Feb. 22, 2016, shooting began when Henfling’s sister, Elise Henfling, called and invited her brother to Fernandez’s apartment, according to a preliminary hearing bindover decision issued by Petersen in March.
Elise Henfling, who was a friend and former co-worker of Fernandez, was visiting from Michigan, said Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson.
James Henfling later told an investigator he brought a gun and a Taser with him because he believed his sister was in danger, but after arriving at Fernandez’s home, he realized she was safe, the bindover decision states.
They all drank together and Fernandez invited the defendant to stay the night, the decision states.
But in the early hours of the Feb. 22, the two men engaged in a “heated” conversation, and Fernandez punched James Henfling in the face and began choking him, the sister testified at the December 2016 preliminary hearing.
The men then began choking each other and fell to the floor, where Fernandez began kicking James Henfling in the face with both of his feet, the decision states.
Elise Henfling testified she tried to stop the kicking by getting between the two men.
At one point, she punched Fernandez in the face, after which James Henfling pulled a gun and shot Fernandez in the forehead, the decision states. Fernandez died several days later at a hospital.
James Henfling later told a Park City police officer that he fired in self-defense. He said he was “losing the fight,” and was almost knocked unconscious,” according to the judge’s decision.
“I didn’t mean to,” James Henfling added. “He was beating the hell out of me.”
James Henfling told a Summit County Attorney’s Office investigator: “I guess I should have shot him in the foot or hand or just in the air but natural reaction being a hunter, you shoot to kill.”
Prosecutors initially charged James Henfling with aggravated murder, alleging that the slaying occurred as part of an aggravated burglary, and that the shooting created a great risk of death to someone other than the victim — Elise Henfling, who narrowly avoided being accidentally shot.
But after the judge in March rejected burglary as an aggravating factor, finding that James Henfling had been invited to the home and was never asked to leave, prosecutors proceeded with a lesser charge of murder instead.
Henfling’s defense attorneys did not return calls for comment.