This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Prosecutors have asked a judge to dismiss an obstruction of justice charge filed in juvenile court against a teen accused of killing his girlfriend.
The request — made Wednesday in court papers and again on Thursday at a hearing before 3rd District Juvenile Court Judge Dane Nolan — is a tactical move by Salt Lake County prosecutors who fear that the juvenile court proceedings could undermine a pending murder case in adult court against Darwin Christopher Bagshaw.
Bagshaw, 17, is accused of murdering his 15-year-old girlfriend Anne Kasprzak in 2012, brutally beating her and tossing her body into the Jordan River.
Both the first-degree felony murder and second-degree felony obstruction charges were initially filed against him in juvenile court, but a ruling from Nolan last week split the case in two.
The Salt Lake Tribune does not typically identify juvenile offenders, but is naming Bagshaw because he now has been certified to face charges in the adult criminal justice system.
Bagshaw had been expected to enter a plea to the obstruction of justice case on Thursday, but the deal was derailed by the prosecutor's motion to dismiss.
"The state is concerned that allowing the juvenile to admit to [the obstruction charge] at this time could ultimately bar the murder prosecution in district court," court papers say.
That's because state law prohibits separate trials for multiple offenses which are part of the same, single criminal episode, court papers say.
Nolan did not decide the issue Thursday, but set another hearing on the motion to dismiss for May 7.
Bagshaw's defense attorney William Russell objected to the dismissal and accused prosecutors of trying to circumvent a court ruling they didn't like.
"We're not playing games," Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Patricia Cassell said after the hearing. "We're doing this so the murder charge goes forward in the cleanest way. We don't want to be derailed from the murder prosecution because of the obstruction charge."
Part of the defense objection stems from a desire to keep Bagshaw in juvenile detention as he awaits prosecution in adult court.
"We want to get him a juvenile placement with the appropriate services," Russell said. "That's been the goal of the defense through all of this."
Prosecutors say Bagshaw, who was just 14 at the time of Kasprzak's slaying, should stand trial in adult court for the alleged crime, saying it was contrary to the public interest to prosecute him in the juvenile system that would release him from custody in three years, according to Nolan's ruling.
Kasprzak was reported missing from her Riverton home on March 10, 2012. Her beaten body was pulled from the Jordan River in Draper the next day.
Prosecutors contend the murder was premeditated, saying Bagshaw lured Kasprzak to an isolated spot near thr river, where he killed her and dumped her body, then tried to cover up the crime.
Kasprzak had been telling friends and family she was pregnant with Bagshaw's baby, but her stepfather testified that she wasn't pregnant.
An autopsy concluded Kasprzak had suffered up to nine blows which left her skull fractured and her forehead shattered.
Bagshaw was charged in October 2014 and arrested at a residence in Colorado where he was living.