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Loa • A 17-year-old boy allegedly killed his uncle last month by putting him in a chokehold during an alcohol-fueled fight at a Fremont home, Wayne County sheriff's deputies testified Wednesday.
The teenager is charged in Loa's 6th District Juvenile Court with second-degree felony manslaughter and a class B misdemeanor count of abuse or desecration of a human body in the October death of 32-year-old Jerimiah Randall James.
After hearing testimony during a half-day preliminary hearing, Judge Paul Lyman ordered the teen to stand trial on the two charges.
Prosecutors are seeking to have the case transferred to the adult court system. A certification hearing — during which the judge will hear psychological evidence and other information before deciding whether to move the case — was scheduled for Dec. 10.
Police were called to the home, near 100 South 300 West in Fremont, late on the morning of Oct. 4, Wayne County Sheriff's Deputy Matthew Webster testified Wednesday.
"The door was open," Webster said. "The body of the deceased was lying on the floor, clearly visible from the doorway."
Webster said he went into the home, found James' body in the living room, where the dead man's father was sleeping on a nearby couch. The teenager was sitting in a chair in the living room.
The deputy testified that he put the teen in handcuffs, took him to his patrol car and asked him what had happened.
"Essentially, they got into a fight," Webster said. "The deceased was intoxicated. They all had been drinking, apparently, and they got into a bit of a fight. [The teen] eventually put the deceased in a chokehold in order to stop the fight, according to him."
Webster said the teen claimed that James was aggressive that night and was "intoxicated to the point of out of control" but never made any threats toward him.
Webster said the teen told him the fight started because James was "teasing and messing around with him," so he put the man in a chokehold. He let him go, the teen allegedly told the deputy, and left the home and went for a walk.
But the two scuffled again when the teen returned and found James standing over the teen's grandfather, yelling at him, Webster testified.
"He described it as, he felt as if his grandfather was being threatened," Webster said.
So the teen allegedly put James in a chokehold a second time, the teen told Webster, and the two fell onto a couch.
"The choke continued until Jerimiah quit moving or quit resisting," Webster testified. "Then [the teen] rolled him off the couch and onto the floor."
The teen then put his grandfather's oxygen cannulas on James and went to bed, Deputy Micah Gulley testified.
In the morning, the boy realized James was dead and asked his grandfather what they should do, according to Gulley. The grandfather told him to make coffee, the defendant allegedly told police.
So he brewed a pot of coffee, the teen said, took a shower and ate breakfast as James' body lay in the living room, a blanket covering his body.
The teenager then contacted another Wayne County resident through Facebook, who eventually alerted police to the death.
"[The resident] said he had received a text message [that] said, 'We've got some problems in the house, can you come and help us?' " Webster testified.
After seeing evidence of blood inside the home, Gulley asked the teen in a follow-up interview whether he had struck his uncle in the face. The teen admitted to punching James in the face sometime during the evening, according to Gulley.
A state medical examiner later determined that James died of strangulation.
Defense attorney David Van Dyke unsuccessfully asked the judge to dismiss the desecration of a human body charge, which alleges the teen "intentionally and unlawfully failed to report the finding of a dead human body."
Van Dyke argued that state law doesn't specify a time frame for when a death must be reported.
"He asked his grandfather what to do," Van Dyke added. "He didn't have a phone that was actually working. … He had an adult there, and he followed the direction that the adult gave him."
But Wayne County Attorney LeEllen McCartney argued that the teen could have gone to a neighbor's home or contacted others about the death.
"Instead," McCartney said, "what he chose to do was take a shower, eat breakfast, make coffee."
The teen has juvenile-court history that began in August 2013, when the then-15-year-old boy spent 81 days in a detention facility for an unspecified crime, according to court documents.
Then, in April 2014, he was put on probation after juvenile court referrals for misdemeanor burglary of a vehicle and theft. He spent about 18 months on probation, which ended Sept. 18.
The Salt Lake Tribune generally does not identify juvenile defendants unless they have been certified to stand trial in adult court.
Twitter: @jm_miller