Child-custody exchange goes wrong in Ogden

OGDEN -- Daniel Zamora, 22, was charged Friday with aggravated robbery after a child-custody exchange gone wrong.

Detectives believe they have been able to sort out whose version of a story about a fight between Zamora and his ex-girlfriend, Savannah Murphy, and subsequent car crash was correct.

Their detective work resulted in the aggravated robbery charge, as well as two counts of false information and two assault- related charges, on the ex-boyfriend.

Zamora and Murphy, 22, were in Ogden on Dec. 5 exchanging their 4-year-old child when they got into a fight. Zamora forced his way into Murphy's 2001 Dodge Durango, shoving her from the driver's seat to the passenger seat as he took the wheel, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Zamora took off and kept hitting Murphy. She retaliated by kicking him in the head as an attempt to stop him from hitting her and so that he would pull over, the affidavit reads.

As he sped east on 25th Street, he lost control of the vehicle and rolled it. The vehicle was totaled.

During all of this, the 4-year-old child was not restrained and could have been injured, according to the affidavit. The only one ultimately hurt was Murphy, who suffered a bump on the head and a scratch on her finger, said Police Lt. Eric Young.

After the crash, Zamora grabbed the child, forced Murphy back into the Durango with his foot when she tried to get out, then fled, according to the affidavit.

He came back to the scene an hour later and signed a written statement of his side of the story. His statement accused Murphy of being the aggressor.

In his signed statement, he states that she tried to drive away as he put their child in the back seat and "had no choice but to climb in and attempt to control the vehicle," the affidavit reads.

He repeated that version in a protective order document that contained a warning that falsifying information is a felony.

But during the police investigation, they started to come across inconsistencies, according to the affidavit.

"During the course of my investigation, I determined that Zamora had falsified the written statement and the protective order affidavit," a police detective wrote in a statement.

Murphy had two recorded calls with Zamora in which he admitted forcing her into the passenger seat and taking the Durango without permission, according to the probable cause affidavit.

According to court documents, Zamora does not own the Durango and has never had permission to drive it, so he was charged with aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony, in 2nd District Court.

He also faces a second-degree felony false information charge and a class A misdemeanor for falsifying the statement.

He also was charged with assault and domestic violence in the presence of a child, both class B misdemeanors.

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