This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
Jury selection was completed Wednesday evening in the trial for a 62-year-old former school bus driver accused of molesting two 5-year-old girls from Sandy, and opening statements were scheduled for Thursday morning.
John Martin Carrell, who drove a bus for the Canyons School District, is accused of touching the girls inappropriately while buckling and unbuckling their seat belts on his bus route to and from Sandy's Altara Elementary School last year.
Carrell is charged in 3rd District Court with 33 counts of first-degree felony aggravated sexual abuse of a child, relying on surveillance video to support their claim that the bus driver touched the two girls inappropriately.
Carrell's defense attorney, Ron Yengich, argued at his client's 2014 preliminary hearing that there is no evidence to support the charges, and said "inadvertent touching" is not enough to support criminal charges. But Yengich conceded that Carrell's hand had brushed one girl's buttocks, but stressed that he was not rubbing her or gratifying himself in doing so.
Prosecutor Nathan Evershed argued that criminal contact occurred when Carrell allegedly had a hand by the girls' crotches or while he was manipulating a girl's skirt while she was near him at the front of the bus.
And while the bus seats sometimes blocked the camera's view of Carrell's interaction with one of the girls, Evershed pointed out that he unbuckled one of the girls last and spent longer with her than the other children — spending 19 to 95 seconds with her, compared to several seconds with the others.
The prosecutor further argued that Carrell at times licked his fingers before or after touching one of the girls; Yengich said the bus driver is rubbing his eye or nose.
The trial is scheduled to last seven days. Carrell faces up to life in prison if convicted of any of the charges.
Twitter: @jm_miller