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A 20-year-old Box Elder County man has pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing his ex-wife inside her Brigham City apartment in April.
Spencer Gerlach pleaded guilty Monday in 1st District Court to first-degree felony murder for the April 15 slaying of 19-year-old Keltsie Gerlach.
In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dismissed a third-degree felony count of domestic violence in the presence of a child.
Spencer Gerlach faces a 15-years-to-life prison term when he is sentenced Dec. 16 by Judge Brandon Maynard.
According to testimony at a preliminary hearing last month, Spencer Gerlach stabbed his ex-wife dozens of times after he became upset because she was on the phone with another man.
Spencer Gerlach told police he was "extremely frustrated" with Keltsie Gerlach after she ignored him when he arrived with a pizza for a visit with their 15-month-old daughter, according to testimony.
Spencer Gerlach went outside to his car and got a military-style knife, then placed their child in her crib, shut the bedroom door, and confronted his ex-wife, a police officer testified.
Spencer Gerlach first stabbed his ex-wife in the stomach, he told police, before stabbing her multiple times in the abdomen, back, buttocks and neck.
Keltsie Gerlach was dead before the defendant called 911 to report the stabbing, according to testimony — a call that Spencer Gerlach told police he made so authorities would come to the apartment near 700 South and 600 East and take custody of his daughter.
The couple had divorced a month before the homicide, according to court records. Spencer Gerlach has no prior criminal history in Utah, aside from speeding ticket.
Police have said it was the city's first prosecuted homicide in nine years.