IAPE Evidence Blog

The Salt Lake Tri­bune
By Nate Carlisle
Link to Arti­cle

Salt Lake City, UT

But ex-BYU stu­dent must say why and how he killed classmate.

The man accused of mur­der­ing a Brigham Young Uni­ver­sity stu­dent in 1974 is “very likely” to plead guilty in the case, one of his lawyers said Tuesday.

One agree­ment under dis­cus­sion also would require the defen­dant, Ger­ald W. Hicker, explain how and why he killed 21-year-old Bar­bara Jean Rocky.

“There’s a pos­si­bil­ity at this point he is going to plead,” said Deputy Salt Lake County Dis­trict Attor­ney Vince Meis­ter. “What we’re talk­ing about as part of that plea is he will allocute.”

One of Hicker’s defense attor­neys, McCaye Chris­tian­son, said it is “very likely” her client will plead guilty. She did not say to what charge. Hicker is charged in 3rd Dis­trict Court in Salt Lake City with mur­der in the first degree, a cap­i­tal crime.

Hicker, 58, on Mon­day waived the remain­der of his pre­lim­i­nary hear­ing, essen­tially con­ced­ing there is enough evi­dence to pro­ceed to trial. Hicker is accused of shoot­ing and killing Rocky on March 11, 1974, in Big Cot­ton­wood Canyon. A util­ity worker found her naked body the next day.

No arrests were made until 2007, when re-tested evi­dence allegedly found a trace of Hicker’s DNA, plac­ing him at the crime scene. Wit­ness tes­ti­mony at a pre­lim­i­nary hear­ing ear­lier this year claimed Hicker, who was a BYU class­mate of Rocky at the time, dis­cussed set­ting up Rocky for a rob­bery because she roman­ti­cally rejected Hicker. A wit­ness also said Hicker knew how many times Rocky was shot with a pistol.

Hicker is sched­uled for arraign­ment Aug. 31. He has been in the Salt Lake County jail since his arrest in Novem­ber 2007.

ncarlisle@sltrib.com

- — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — -
Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment“
www.IAPE.org

The Asso­ci­ated Press State and Local Wire

Salt Lake City, UT

A Utah man con­victed of ille­gally pos­sess­ing dozens of rub­ber boa snakes can’t sue author­i­ties over the death of almost all of them while they were in state cus­tody.  The Utah Supreme Court ruled Fri­day the Utah Divi­sion of Wildlife Resources is immune from claims of negligence.

Ryan Hoyer, a 35-year-old Clearfield accoun­tant, says the DWR kept the 65 rub­ber boas in an evi­dence room where all but three died of dehy­dra­tion or star­va­tion. Hoyer, who was fined $800 in Oper­a­tion Slither, says he’s dis­ap­pointed that he can’t hold author­i­ties account­able for their “ter­ri­ble care.”

The court rejected Hoyer’s argu­ment that author­i­ties will­fully let the snakes die. A spokesman for DWR, an agency that is closed on Fri­days, didn’t imme­di­ately return a mes­sage from The Asso­ci­ated Press.

- — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — -
Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment“
www.IAPE.org

The Asso­ci­ated Press

Cedar City, UT

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Three 17-year-old St. George boys, one the son of a Utah High­way Patrol trooper, have been arrested for inves­ti­ga­tion into the thefts of more than 23 pounds of mar­i­juana from the UHP’s evi­dence locker in Cedar City.

Iron County author­i­ties are unsure how many crim­i­nal cases may have been com­pro­mised by the thefts. Only some of the mar­i­juana has been recov­ered. Two of the teens have con­fessed to their roles in the thefts, sheriff’s detec­tive David Mitchell said, and a war­rant has been issued for a fourth youth. The teens were booked into juve­nile deten­tion for inves­ti­ga­tion of bur­glary, theft, evad­ing arrest, drug pos­ses­sion, tam­per­ing with evi­dence and obstruc­tion of jus­tice.
The youth who was the son of a trooper pur­port­edly filched his father’s keys to get access to the building.

The youths were arrested after the lat­est theft from the evi­dence locker. A police offi­cer tried to stop a sus­pi­cious car out­side the UHP’s Cedar City office on Feb. 27 and the occu­pants fled, Cedar City Police Sgt. Jerry Wom­ack said.

After a short chase, the occu­pants bailed out of the car and tried escape on foot, Wom­ack said. Offi­cers arrested two of the teens a short time later and a third was arrested the next day.

Mar­i­juana and drug para­pher­na­lia were found.

Mitchell said the locker was bur­glar­ized first between Octo­ber and Jan­u­ary and again on Feb. 27.

Mitchell said he ini­tially began ques­tion­ing peo­ple within the patrol’s Cedar City office who had access to the building.

Deputies refused to release the name of the trooper whose keys were taken, but said he was unaware of his son’s alleged involve­ment until the arrests.

The patrol said Tues­day it was coop­er­at­ing with the Iron County sheriff’s inves­ti­ga­tion but did not antic­i­pate any dis­ci­pli­nary action against the trooper whose keys were taken.

- — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — - — -
Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment“
www.IAPE.org