By Brinda Kalita, Brandon Blanco, Oliver Camarena, Veronica Miller
WOODLAND, CA – The ongoing trial of Jesus Campos and Chandale Shannon for the murder of two teens reconvened Tuesday in Yolo County Superior Court.
Jonathan Froste, who is already serving 15 years to life for second degree murder of teens Enrique Rios and Elijah Moore, took to the stand to testify to what happened before, during, and after the murders took place.
J. Froste said he met Shannon in middle school and was friends with Shannon for seven to eight years. He also explained how he met Campos through Shannon.
Deputy District Attorney David Wilson asked Froste, “How did you spend time with Chandale and how did you communicate with him?” J. Froste described how he communicated with Shannon through Facebook Messenger and they smoked marijuana together every day, along with Campos.
Regarding how the witness met the victims, J. Froste explained how he met Elijah and Enrique at a party in Woodland.
On Oct. 17, 2016, Jonathan Froste received a call from David Froste that he was robbed by Elijah and wanted to kill him, using a gun that he stole from his job in San Francisco. If they could not find Elijah, they would find Enrique.
An individual not named from the group asked Jonathan if he would accompany them to find Enrique to get to Elijah, but he refused to join.
The next day, J. Froste said Jesus picked up Enrique in Esparto to take him to a “party” but took him to Knights Landing along with David and Shannon, where he was subsequently slain.
According to Jonathan’s testimony, David told Jonathan the following day on how he told Enrique to get out of the car but he refused. When he ran after seeing the gun, David shot Enrique two times on the lower torso near a river. When he was wounded, David shot him once in the head, killing him instantly.
After Enrique was murdered, D. Froste stripped Enrique’s clothes and buried him in an undisclosed location near the site of where he was murdered. According to the witness, D. Froste expressed regret.
The next day, D. Froste was still determined to get payback on Elijah. He asked Jonathan to let him know if he ever saw Elijah around and not to talk to the police.
Later, an acquaintance of Shannon contacted him saying that they were approached by Elijah to help set up Shannon to a location where Elijah could rob him. Shannon was further angered by this.
J. Froste stated that after work one day, he met up with Campos and D. Frost and went to Purity Plaza in Woodland to eat. While in the car at the plaza, Campos saw Elijah entering a barbershop and pointed him out saying “that’s him.”
The three of them, added J. Froste, waited for Elijah to exit the barbershop, at which point D. Frost confronted him. Elijah, shocked at seeing him, apologized for the robbing.
D. Froste ordered him to get into the trunk of J. Froste’s rental car, saying that to pay for his crime they were going to drive him far away and he’d have to walk home. He also took Elijah’s paycheck and phone, which he turned off, before locking him in the trunk.
The three of them, with Elijah locked in the trunk of the car, then drove to Shannon’s house to retrieve the gun that was used in Enrique’s murder. During the car ride to Shannon’s house, David said he was going to kill Elijah.
Once they arrived, they found Shannon was not home and called him to get him to come home. He did while also retrieving the gun before joining the three of them in the car.
Now, with D. Froste, J. Froste, Campos, Shannon, and Elijah in the trunk, D. Froste told J. Froste to drive to Knights Landing, the same spot where they had killed Enrique.
Once they arrived at the remote location, near the river that Enrique was murdered at, D. Froste got out of the car, gave Shannon the gun, and told him to point it at Elijah while he opened the trunk.
D. Froste ordered Elijah onto the ground and zip tied his hands and ankles, immobilizing him. D. Froste then told Elijah to pray, according to J. Froste.
He then said he was going to get supplies and, with Campos, left the area, leaving J. Froste and Shannon to watch over Elijah. Elijah asked them to let him go, to which they responded that they couldn’t do that. He also asked to call his mother, which he was never allowed to do.
D. Froste, who’d been gone so long that it was now night time, arrived back at the area with black garbage bags, shovels, a pickaxe, bleach, and a can of gasoline.
He told Elijah that now he would be buried next to Enrique.
D. Froste took one of the large branches that were on the ground in the area and used it to hit Elijah on the back of the head. The group each took a turn using the branch to hit Elijah on the back of the head, eventually beating him to death.
D. Froste, noted J. Froste, told the group to start digging a hole and after about an hour, D. Frost dragged Elijah’s body into the shallow hole and lit his body on fire. They then buried him with dirt and foliage while dosing the area in bleach.
They collected all the tools used to dig the hole, as well as their bloodied clothes, and put them in a garbage bag before driving away from the area. They drove to an empty field and took the bloodied clothes out to light them on fire before again driving away.
They last stopped on a draw bridge to throw the tools used to dig the hole over into the river then drove back to Knights Landing to the Froste brothers’ home to get new clothes.
The group then went to a 24-hour Denny’s restaurant in Woodland where D. Froste told them to not say anything to anyone about the murders.
The next day, D. Froste used Elijah’s phone to text his mother, trying to act as if Elijah was the one texting and that he had run away.
After the murders of the two teens, D. Froste ordered Shannon, Campos, and Jonathan Froste to stay silent if ever questioned and to get ahold of lawyers if need be.
At one point, J. Froste even lied to investigators about the incident, in fear of what his brother would do to him if he did confess.
J. Froste also mentioned that his brother truly believed that he had gotten away with murder, as “they needed the bodies to prove that they did it.”
DDA Wilson then asked J. Froste about his father’s funeral, which took place in 2018, a year after D. Froste was taken into custody.
J. Froste stated that he had gone with his brother to Sacramento for a day to see his father’s body. Later that night, D. Froste had returned to custody.
Additionally, J. Froste mentioned that neither he nor D. Froste believed that they were being followed by law enforcement during their trip.
J. Froste was then asked about what led him to contacting the district attorney and testifying against his brother and friends.
J. Froste revealed that he did not want to hide anymore what they had done to the teens.
“It’s better to tell the truth than to keep denying and lying,” J. Froste added.
DDA Wilson then showed Froste multiple screenshots of his conversations with both the accused, D. Froste, and one of his friends who revealed to J. Froste that Elijah Moore had wanted to steal marijuana from them.
J. Froste confirmed that he was the subject of these conversations and clarified the whereabouts of Shannon and his brother during the exchanges.
DDA Wilson played for J. Froste audio recordings of phone calls between him and his brother, D. Froste. There were also phone calls between him and Shannon. The phone calls laid out the events that took place after the robbery.
After the robbery his brother wanted to confront the person who stole from them. J. Froste did not want to be a part of this, because he knew his brother had a gun and had it with him.
J. Froste recalled that his brother stated he wanted to shoot up the house of Enrique, who had stolen from him to get back at him.
The next morning J. Froste was told that they had met up with the victim. And had taken him from his home and shot him.
D. Froste was the one who shot the victim, and David Nelson who is on the defense counsel made sure to note that Shannon and Campos were not the ones who had fired the gun.
J. Froste then recounted the events that led up to the other victim being murdered. D. Froste was angry and wanted to confront Elijah because it was his friend that had stolen from him.
After seeing Elijah, D. Froste went to talk to him.
The victim, after talking with D. Froste got into the back of the car. D. Froste, J. Froste, Shannon, and Campos led him to a river where he was hit in the head with a tree branch. All four of them had hit the victim. D. Froste lastly shot the victim in the head before they continued to burn their clothes. They also buried and bleached the body of the victim.
J. Froste recalled that he felt afraid of his brother at that moment and did what he wanted out of that fear.
J. Froste had also written a letter to the mothers of the two victims explaining that he was sorry for his involvement in the crimes and that he was sorry that they had taken the victims away from their families. J. Froste had read his letter to the Davis Enterprise during an interview with them.
The last witness of the day was an acquaintance of Elijah’s. However, this witness did not provide much help as he had not reviewed any of the reports before coming in to testify.
This case is ongoing all week.
