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A juvenile court judge announced Friday that he will wait until after he hears the evidence against the 17-year-old boy accused of killing 15-year-old Anne Kasprzak before he decides whether the teen's two criminal charges will be separated.
The teen — who is charged in 3rd District Juvenile Court with first-degree felony murder and second-degree felony obstruction of justice — made a brief court appearance Friday when the judge announced the decision.
Earlier this month, the boy's attorneys had asked that the two charges be severed from one another before a certification and preliminary hearing set to begin on March 2.
Defense attorney Bill Russell argued that the two alleged offenses — the homicide and subsequent lies told to police — were not committed in the "same criminal episode."
Judge Dane Nolan said Friday that "it does appear that they do not arise of the same criminal episode," but told attorneys he didn't want to rule until after hearing the evidence in the case.
"I'm not willing to say [a ruling] today," the judge told the attorneys.
After the seven-day preliminary hearing, Nolan also will decide whether the teen's case should stay in juvenile court or go to adult court, as prosecutors have requested. If he severs the charges, he could opt to keep one charge in juvenile court and one in adult court.
Earlier this month, prosecutor Patricia Cassell asked the judge to keep the two charges tied to one another.
"We would ask that you do find they were in the same criminal episode," Cassell said. "They really are intertwined and linked. We wouldn't have the obstruction of justice without the underlying crime."
The boy — who was 14 at the time of the slaying — was charged last October with the crimes. The Salt Lake Tribune generally does not identify juvenile defendants unless they have been certified to stand trial as an adult.
Kasprzak was last seen alive on March 10, 2012. The Draper girl's body, battered beyond recognition — DNA ultimately identified her — was found in the Jordan River the next day.
The defendant was Kasprzak's boyfriend at the time. While police and prosecutors have remained tight-lipped about a motive in the girl's death, a search warrant affidavit indicates the girl may have thought she was pregnant with her boyfriend's baby.
In an interview with police, Kasprzak's stepfather, James Bratcher, said he learned that Kasprzak was telling family and friends — and the defendant — she was pregnant with the boy's child. Her family had the girl take a pregnancy test, which came back negative, according to the affidavit.
Police spoke to the defendant a few days after Kasprzak's body was found and asked for the shoes he was wearing. He told officers that Kasprzak had a bloody nose two weeks before at the home of one of his friends and that some of the blood dropped onto a shoelace, the probable cause statement says.
During an interview with officers, the friend at first said Kasprzak had a bloody nose at his house, the statement says. But after officers found a text on the friend's phone from the defendant asking him to tell police the bloody nose story, the friend admitted he had lied, according to charging documents.
Twitter: @jm_miller