Man gets 16 to 40 years in park shooting that paralyzed teen

Seated in a wheelchair and wearing fingerless gloves, Keaton Belliston clutched his mother’s hand.

Cody Nix sat on Keri Belliston’s right, and wrapped his arm around the shoulders of his best friend’s mom. Tears welled in Nix’s eyes as a judge sentenced the gunman who fired a bullet into Keaton Belliston’s neck three years ago at a northwest valley skateboard park.

The Jan. 3, 2012, shooting left Keaton paralyzed from the waist down and his family financially devastated, Keri Belliston said. Her husband and Keaton’s stepfather committed suicide because of the pressure he felt after Keaton was paralyzed, she said.

District Judge Stefany Miley ordered Elijah Alvarado to serve 16 to 40 years in prison on four counts including attempted murder, robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery and battery. Alvarado pleaded guilty to the charges in September and apologized to the victims on Monday.

Alvarado’s co-defendant, Jerry Santisteven, also has pleaded guilty in the case and is still awaiting sentencing.

They were also accused in a separate robbery at Buffalo Drive and Golden Talon Avenue earlier the same day.

Prosecutor Megan Thomson said Alvarado “engaged in incredibly violent behavior” that night when he fired five shots at a group of teenagers, including Keaton Belliston, Nix and their friend Justin Randall, who had been skateboarding at Mountain Ridge Park, near Elkhorn Road and U.S. Highway 95.

Belliston was videotaping Nix performing a couple of tricks on his board about 8 p.m. when Alvarado and Santisteven approached and demanded cellphones and an iPod. The teens turned over their electronics, and Alvarado pulled out a handgun.

Nix said he watched a bullet zoom past the left side of his face.

Belliston turned to run “and that’s when it hit,” Nix said after the sentencing hearing. “I dropped on the ground instantly. I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t running away.”

Randall pulled Belliston to a safe area. Nix ran from the park, flagged down a driver and asked him to call police.

Nix rushed back to his friends and took off his shirt to wrap the wound.

“Keaton’s eyes were red,” Nix said. “I was like, ‘Hang in there buddy. Hang in there. You’re good, buddy.’ ”

Belliston whispered, “Where’d I get shot?”

Nix thought his friend was going to die.

The bullet had pierced Belliston’s neck in the narrow space between his carotid artery and jugular vein. Had either vessel been struck, he likely would not have lived.

“Baby boy, you’re fine. Hang in there. Hang in there. Hang in there.”

Belliston was hospitalized in Las Vegas for more than a month, suffering from pressure sores and fevers before he was transported to a Denver hospital that specializes in spinal cord injuries.

When his stepfather died, the family moved to Salt Lake City to live in a cooler climate with Keri Belliston’s father, who helped support them financially. But he died unexpectedly in October.

Keri Belliston now spends most of her time caring for her son and is unable to work.

A few months ago, a friend set up a crowd-sourcing page online for the family, saying they are “in dire need of help at this truly difficult time.”

Keri Belliston, days before the sentencing, set up a similar page that said the family is financially “wiped out” and “scrambling for February’s rent.”

She contemplated the ride back to Salt Lake City, saying she would return when Santisteven is sentenced. She had hoped that Alvarado would receive more time behind bars.

“We were hoping for a sentence of life,” she said. “That’s what Keaton’s got. Keaton’s not getting out of the chair in 40 years.”

Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker