This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Posted: 4:43 PM- Utah State Prison inmate Curtis Michael Allgier was charged today with aggravated murder for allegedly shooting Corrections Officer Stephen Anderson during an escape Monday at University Hospital.
The charge - which carries a possible death penalty - accuses Allgier of shooting Anderson twice, once in the chest and once in the head, in an exam room at the hospital's orthopedic center.
In addition to murder, Allgier was charged with three counts of first-degree felony attempted murder for trying to kill three people in an Arby's restaurant near 1700 South and Redwood Road.
Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office prosecutors also charged Allgier with disarming a peace officer, aggravated escape and aggravated robbery - all first-degree felonies - and possession of a weapon by a restricted person, a second-degree felony.
Prosecutors also charged Allgier's friend, Trisha Tower, with obstruction of justice, for allegedly hiding Allgier's prison jumpsuit, which he changed out of at her west side Salt Lake City home shortly after allegedly killing Anderson and stealing a car at gunpoint.
Allgier, who was in prison awaiting federal incarceration for weapons violations, is currently in the Salt Lake County jail. In a jailhouse interview Wednesday, he told a Tribune reporter that shooting Anderson was an accident - a claim now less credible given that Anderson was shot twice.