Jose Manuel Gervacio entered a December 2025 guilty plea to attempted murder for the Heber restaurant melee that left one person critically injured and another wounded.
He was placed on 36 months probation and warned by 4th District Judge Jennifer Mabey that she would send him to prison if he got in trouble again.
On June 17 Mabey kept that promise, sentencing Gervacio to a prison term of up to 15 years. The punishment was triggered by the 22-year-old’s new arrest for allegedly trying to steal a car owned by his fiancé's father in March.
Before Mabey’s judgement, Gervacio told the judge he wants to change and begged her to stay on probation so he could support his 6-month-old daughter, fiancé and mother.
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But the judge said Gervacio’s actions don’t reflect an effort to change. She noted he had a Utah County case pending at the time of the stabbing and got in trouble again within months of her December decision.
She said she believed prison is an appropriate consequence of Gervacio’s choices.
Mabey also ordered Gervacio to 360 days in jail on two of the five charges – misdemeanor drug possession and property destruction – he pleaded guilty to in the March case.
A felony count of attempted theft, for trying to take the car, and misdemeanor counts of assault and possession were dismissed. He’ll serve the sentences concurrently with the prison term.
Also June 17, Geveracio’s brother, David, pleaded guilty to a class A misdemeanor charge of assault in connection with the birthday party stabbing. He is the last of the five men charged to resolve his case. Sentencing is set for Aug. 19 in Mabey’s court.