A Maricopa County jury returned a not guilty verdict Wednesday for a former Red Mountain High School football player who faced manslaughter charges in the 2023 death of teammate Jeremiah Aviles. The acquittal came more than three years after the 18-year-old was shot and killed while visiting a friend’s house in May 2023, closing the criminal case without the conviction Aviles’ family had sought.
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Portrait of the Red Mountain High School football player used in coverage following a Maricopa County jury's acquittal of his former teammate in the 2023 shooting death.
Court documents from the time of the investigation stated that Peter Clabron III was handling a firearm and was under the influence when the weapon discharged, striking Aviles. Those documents formed part of the investigative record that prosecutors relied on to bring charges, but the case ultimately went to trial and was decided by a jury following 11 days of proceedings. The jury’s verdict was reached after presentations from both sides and deliberations by the panel of citizens tasked with weighing the evidence and the legal standards presented by the court.
Aviles’ mother, Olga Lopez, described her reaction to the verdict as numb. “This is news for so many and it’s a story for so many,” Lopez said. “But this is our life.” In interviews after the verdict she said she had held out hope for a conviction for more than three years and that the outcome left her without the sense of resolution she had sought. “There is no closure for a family who tragically loses a child,” she added.
Lopez has been openly critical of how the investigation into her son’s death was handled. She urged that the work done by law enforcement in the aftermath of the shooting was inadequate, calling it a “subpar investigation” and questioning whether investigative shortcomings contributed to the inability to secure a conviction. “With no conviction in her son’s death, Lopez is left to wonder if that investigation cost him justice,” she said, and added, “It’s too late for my son. It’s too late for our case.”
Representatives of the Mesa Police Department were contacted about Lopez’s concerns but declined to comment on the case. The lack of public response from law enforcement agencies left questions from the family and the community about investigative choices made early in the matter and whether different steps might have produced different evidentiary outcomes at trial.
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office issued a statement acknowledging the trial’s result and noting challenges the prosecution faced, including the death of a key witness. The office said that the loss of that witness significantly complicated its efforts to present the case, but it said it respects the jury’s decision. Beyond that acknowledgement, officials did not elaborate on specifics about trial strategy, evidentiary rulings, or what the next steps, if any, might be for investigators or prosecutors following the acquittal.
In the aftermath of the verdict, Lopez said she intends to keep her son’s memory alive through advocacy work and by continuing the Jeremiah Aviles Foundation, an organization that supports high school seniors. She emphasized that her son should not be defined solely by the circumstances of his death, saying, “My Jeremiah is not what happened to him. My Jeremiah is an extraordinary young man who’s doing extraordinary things.” The foundation and Lopez’s public statements aim to direct attention to Aviles’ life and to provide support for students as his family seeks other avenues to honor his legacy.
No new criminal charges were reported following the jury’s not guilty verdict. With the acquittal, the legal chapter brought by prosecutors in this case has concluded without the conviction Aviles’ family had pursued, and the questions raised by the family about the investigation and the trial’s outcome remain in the public record.
Jurors deliberated for about an hour before acquitting Clabron on July 1, 2026, with the defendant becoming emotional and tearing up as the not guilty verdicts were read, azcentral reported. This detail highlights the brevity of the panel's decision-making after 11 days of trial.
Mesa police say the shooting occurred just before 2 a.m. on May 7, 2023, inside a bedroom at a home on the 2300 block of East Camino Street, and emergency crews pronounced Jeremiah Aviles dead at the scene.
After executing a search warrant, investigators recovered video that shows Clabron pointing a handgun at Aviles several times before the weapon discharged, and witnesses later told police Clabron had fired a handgun into the air from the back of a truck earlier that night.
Mesa Police say Clabron was booked into jail on May 11, 2023 on charges listed by the department as manslaughter and two counts of unlawful discharge of a firearm.