2 security guards sentenced in death of Ogden nightclub patron left in street

OGDEN — Two security guards charged in the 2025 death of a nightclub patron left in a busy Ogden street after an altercation have been sentenced, one getting prison time, the other getting probation on top of jail time he had already served.

A third man involved was sentenced last March in the case, which led to the death of the nightclub patron after a car struck and killed him in the street where he was left.

Judge Rueben Renstrom on Thursday sentenced Jeison Gomez Diaz, 41, to zero to five years in prison on a count of manslaughter, a third-degree felony. The incident took place on Feb. 23, 2025, outside an Ogden nightclub where Gomez, Martin Esparza Espinoza and Jose Higinio Garcia Jimenez were working as security guards.

Also on Thursday, Renstrom sentenced Esparza, 58, to 364 days of jail on a count of negligent homicide, a class A misdemeanor, while also granting him credit for 364 days already served. Renstrom also placed Esparza on probation for two years.

Last March, Renstrom sentenced Garcia, 55, to zero to five years in prison for manslaughter, a third-degree felony.

Gomez, Esparza and Garcia were all working as security guards at an Ogden nightclub when they got involved in an altercation with a man who allegedly wouldn't pay for tacos he had bought. The fight continued to the middle of nearby Washington Boulevard, a busy Ogden street, where the man, Albert Gutierrez, fell down and was subsequently hit and killed by a car after he was left there by the security guards.

Gomez had originally been charged with a second-degree felony count of manslaughter but it was reduced to a third-degree felony as part of a plea deal with Weber County prosecutors. In his plea deal, he acknowledged his role in the 2025 incident, saying that while he was working security, he was asked to assist in dealing with Gutierrez.

Gutierrez "started a fight, which continued into Washington Boulevard where I and others left him," reads Gomez's statement in the plea deal. After that, "a vehicle driven by an unknown person ran over the other person, which caused his death."

Esparza was also originally charged with a second-degree felony count of manslaughter, but it was reduced to negligent homicide as part of the plea deal. In his plea deal statement, Esparza was more vague than Gomez.

"On or about Feb. 23, 2025, in Weber County, state of Utah, the defendant did engage in conduct that was a cause in the death of another individual," it reads.

In his plea deal with prosecutors, Garcia said Gutierrez had fallen in Washington Boulevard as a result of the altercation with security guards. "I directed my co-workers to leave him in the street. The patron was hit by a passing car and later died from his injuries," Garcia's statement says.

According to original charging papers, Gutierrez was hit by a car less than a minute after the security guards left him in the middle of Washington Boulevard. He died of the "massive injuries" he sustained.

As described by Esparza in court papers last year, Gutierrez wouldn't submit to the guards' efforts to get him under control. Esparza deployed pepper spray as a result, but it landed on him, he maintains, limiting his subsequent efforts with Gutierrez and preventing him from following the man into Washington Boulevard.

"Moreover, as the other security guards came back from dealing with the decedent, no one, security guards or other patrons, informed (Esparza) as to what happened to the decedent or as to the decedent's whereabouts," reads a March 19, 2025, motion in the case filed by Esparza.

Related topics