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Draper • A Utah inmate doing time on convictions stemming from the death of 16-year-old Samantha Mikesell in a suicide pact said Tuesday at his parole hearing that nothing justified his actions.
"Everything I did was wrong," said Walter Andrew White, who was 38 and having a sexual relationship with the teen at the time of her 2006 death.
White also said he accepts responsibility for taking Mikesell's life, adding, "It was all my fault."
The Davis County man is serving up to 20 years in prison for child-abuse homicide and other crimes. He has been behind bars for a decade now and Tuesday's proceeding was his first parole hearing.
Denise Porter, the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole member who conducted the hearing, said the full board will make a decision in the coming weeks.
White began having sexual relations with Mikesell in October 2005 and also showed the girl pornographic Web sites on his computer, according to court records.
On July 5, 2006, White went with Mikesell in the foothills above Bountiful to commit suicide and provided the girl with a prescription medication, court documents say. The girl ingested a lethal dose of imipramine — an anti-depressant sold under the brand name Tofranil that had been prescribed for White's use — and did not wake up the next morning, police have said.
White, who said he also ingested pills, did wake up. He then dragged the girl's body to a more secluded area and also hid some of the pill bottles, according to court documents.
As part of a plea bargain, White pleaded guilty to second-degree felony child-abuse homicide, as well as unlawful sexual activity with a 16- or 17-year-old, dealing in harmful material to a minor and obstructing justice, all third-degree felonies. Prosecutors dismissed one count of third-degree felony desecration of a dead human body and one count of unlawful sexual activity with a 16- or 17-year-old.
At Tuesday's hearing, White said he and Mikesell had both considered suicide separately. The two came up with the phrase "if you go, we go," which actually was "protection" against suicide for both of them, White said.
But Mikesell's mother learned of their relationship and said he was going to jail and her daughter was going to go live with her father, according to White.
"Everything snowballed from there," he said.
Mikesell called and said, "If you're ready to do, I'm ready to go," he said.
The two hiked up a trail in Mueller Park and he took the pills first, White said. He believes he survived the suicide attempt because he had been taking the medication for five years and had built up a tolerance to it.
White, who turns 49 on Wednesday, has been listed on Utah's sex offender registry since 1996, when he pleaded guilty to lewdness involving a child and was sentenced to six days in jail and a year's probation. In that case, White admitted putting two holes in the wall of a Bountiful apartment so he could look into the bedroom of their adjacent unit.
White said at the parole hearing that he wanted to see the 16-year-old girl who lived there but because her 11-year-old sister also shared the bedroom, he was charged with a crime involving a child, which landed him on the sex offender list.
Porter noted that White has stayed out of trouble in prison and taken numerous life skills classes.
White said he has signed up for sex offender treatment and would stay in therapy and become active in his church if paroled.
"I'm committed to change," he said, adding that he also is prepared to serve his entire term.
Twitter: @PamelaManson