Larry Gene Beach
The man accused of killing a Stansbury High School student last weekend has been charged with murder.
Roy Gene Coffey
Larry Beach, a 20-year-old San Antonio, Texas, man, was charged Tuesday afternoon with murder, a first-degree felony, and obstructing justice, a second-degree felony. His cousin, 18-year-old Roy Coffey of Stansbury Park, was charged with second-degree felony obstruction of justice.
Jesse Horowitz, a 17-year-old SHS senior, was killed early Saturday morning at a midnight fight at Stansbury Elementary School between a friend of Horowitz’s and Coffey, said Lt. Travis Scharmann of the Tooele County Sheriff’s Office.
After that fight, which was reportedly over a girl, Horowitz and Beach began fighting on their own. Horowitz was stabbed several times in his chest and abdomen, Scharmann said.
Although witnesses immediately called for medical help for Horowitz, and ambulances and law enforcement arrived within minutes, the teen died at the scene from his injuries, Scharmann said.
Beach and Coffey were arrested at Coffey’s Stansbury home later Saturday. Bail for Beach has been set at $1 million while Coffey’s has been set at $50,000.
Because Horowitz was biracial, and Beach, his alleged killer, was white, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), has taken an interest in the case, and any aggravation, escalation or targeting that may have had to do with race.
Calls to the NAACP Salt Lake branch were not returned by press time Thursday.
Scharmann said he has not found any mention of race in any aspect of the investigation so far.
“I’ve talked to my detectives about their interviews with witnesses, and there’s been nothing mentioned about [race],” he said. “I haven’t heard anything off the street, either, other than the NAACP’s getting involved.”