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Draper • A Utah inmate claimed at a parole hearing Tuesday that medication he was taking nearly 40 years ago when he killed a man and critically wounded a woman in Mill Creek Canyon is known "to cause people to go crazy."
The inmate, 66-year-old Douglas Alan Yoakam, insisted he never would have pleaded guilty to the crimes if he knew at the time how the prescription — which he believed was a painkiller but later learned was an antidepressant — could affect him. He thinks the information could be used as new evidence to get him back in court, Yoakam added.
Jesse Gallegos, a member of the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole who conducted the hearing, expects a decision in about six weeks. Parole decisions are made by majority vote of the five-member board.
Yoakam pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the May 10, 1977, shootings and was sentenced to up to life in prison.
According to police, Yoakam accosted 24-year-old Karen Sue Roberson, who had spent the morning in the canyon and had just returned to her pickup truck. Yoakam, a gun dealer who has been diagnosed as schizophrenic with delusions, tried to handcuff his victim at gunpoint.
As the two started to struggle, Justin Taufer, 67, stopped to help the woman. After Taufer got between the two and took away the firearm, Yoakam got a machine pistol from under the seat of his car and fired at least 14 times at the pair, police said.
Taufer died at the scene, and Roberson was critically injured but survived. Yoakam, then 28, was arrested later that day at his Salt Lake City home.
At Tuesday's parole hearing, Yoakam said he had gone to a picnic area in the canyon, with his 15-month-old daughter in the car, to purchase a firearm scope from a man.
While waiting for the seller to arrive, he thought someone took a shot at him, Yoakam said. Then Roberson walked by and he tried to put handcuffs on her until he could figure out what was going on, he said.
Roberson began to struggle and Taufer ran over, Yoakam said.
"I turned the gun over to him," Yoakam said.
But something made Yoakam suspect that Taufer also might be involved in an attempt to kill him, so he got another firearm from his car and fired, Yoakam said.
He also said he believes the alleged attempt to shoot him had a connection to the slaying of Rulon C. Allred, leader of the polygamous Apostolic United Brethren, who was gunned down in his Murray office on that same day, May 10, 1977. A rival polygamist, Ervil LeBaron, was convicted of ordering the assassination.
Yoakam said if he were granted parole, he would live in a halfway house and definitely would not have any more guns.
Gallegos said he did not immediately know what recommendation he will make to the board. However, he said he worries that Yoakam could become paranoid again.
"I have some concerns about your mental stability, " Gallegos said.
No victims or family members attended the hearing.
Taufer, a retired sheet metal worker and bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was awarded a posthumous heroism medal by Kiwanis International in 1977. Taufer Park, at 700 South and 300 East in Salt Lake City, was named in his honor.
At the Kiwanis ceremony, Taufer's widow, Rose Margaret Taufer, said her late husband's life was lived in service to people.
"If he knew someone needed help, he'd be there, if they were black or white, Mormon, Catholic or Protestant," Taufer said.
Yoakam had come up for parole several other times, most recently in early 2006, and has been denied each time.
Twitter: @PamelaMansonSLC