Salt Lake City Area [Farmington] -- Capital Murder (2 incidents)
On January 15, 2001, Roger Martin MacGuire murdered his pregnant ex-wife Susan at the Layton insurance office where she worked. MacGuire had learned that his ex-wife was pregnant by her new boyfriend and that they were planning to wed. The morning of the slaying, the defendant told a co-worker he was going to kill his ex-wife. Soon after, MacGuire went to her office, where she picked up the phone and threatened to call the police. MacGuire later told police he "lost it." He went to his car and retrieved a newly purchased .380-caliber handgun, then returned to the office and started shooting. Susan MacGuire was struck in the back of the head, the left arm and the abdomen.
Macguire told police he meant only to frighten Susan, and claimed the gun "just went off."
Davis County Attorney Melvin Wilson said that the number of shots fired and their location -- two struck Susan in the abdomen -- show MacGuire's intent to kill both Susan and her preborn child.
Following the shooting, MacGuire confessed to a friend, who accompanied MacGuire to the Riverdale Police Department.
Flagging down an officer in the parking lot, MacGuire blurted: "I just killed my wife."
On January 7, 2002, Macguire tried to escape double homicide charges by arguing that the preborn child he shot was not yet able to survive outside the womb and thus was not a "person" under the law. But State Judge Michael Allphin said the 1983 law which deems the slaying of an "unborn child" murder applies also to children in the womb who are not yet viable. Judge Allphin agreed with prosecutors that the definition of a "person" in reproductive rights cases is not relevant in a criminal context. He said that "Reproductive rights cases are simply inapplicable to restrict the state's interest in protecting unborn life."
Charged with two counts of capital murder, Myers avoided a possible death-penalty conviction by pleading guilty to a single count of capital murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
"Utah Judge Rules Slaying of "Unborn Child" is Murder Even Before Viability." Lifesite Daily News at http://www.lifesite.net, January 8, 2002; "Utah Judge Rules on Fetal Murder." Associated Press, January 8, 2002.
Salt Lake City -- Capital Murder
On December 3, 1994, Calvin Shane Myers, his pregnant ex-girlfriend, Irene Christensen, and another man, Steven Paul Howard, were driving toward Park City shortly after midnight in heavy snow. They came upon an unplowed road, and the three got out and walked toward Rockport Reservoir State Park. Myers and Christensen embraced, and then Myers stabbed her at least 12 times with a rusty 4 1/2-inch hunting blade. The two men then left the area, leaving Christensen in a snowbank. Her frozen body was found by a snowmobiler two weeks later.
An autopsy of Christensen's baby showed a 16- to 18-week-old male preborn child. A state medical examiner testified that the child was alive immediately prior to Christensen's death, and died because she died.
Myers confessed to the crime and was charged with two counts of murder. In February 1996, pled guilty to one count of capital murder. In exchange, Summit County prosecutors dismissed the second murder charge and agreed to a sentence of life in prison instead of the death penalty.
For a person to be charged with capital murder under Utah law, there must be an aggravating factor in addition to the underlying murder. Myers was charged under the provision that allows capital murder charges if the murder was committed as part of one "criminal episode during which two or more persons were killed."
Angie Welling. "Is Threat of Death Penalty Misused?" Deseret Morning News, November 30, 2003; Elizabeth Neff. "Killer Says He Got Bad Legal Advice." The Salt Lake Tribune, December 5, 2003.
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