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At the request of the alleged victim's family, the death penalty has been taken off the table for Brandon Perry Smith, who is accused of killing a woman in a St. George apartment in 2010. Prosecutors filed a motion Tuesday withdrawing their intent to prosecute the case as capital murder for the stabbing death of 20-year-old Jerrica Christensen.
Smith still faces a charge of first-degree felony aggravated murder — which is punishable by a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole — but he no longer can be executed if convicted.
"The state is taking this action at the request of the family of the victim in an effort to avoid the delays associated with litigating a capital homicide case," Deputy Washington County Attorney Ryan Shaum wrote in court papers. "And to focus on bringing the case to trial as soon as possible."
Several trial dates have been set and delayed in the six years since Christensen was murdered, according to court papers. Before this most recent development, Smith's attorneys had been challenging the constitutionality of the death penalty and had sought to depose all of Utah's 29 county attorneys to determine why some seek the death penalty and others don't — though a judge struck down that request, saying if the defendant wanted to take depositions from state prosecutors he "must first show that his prosecution has resulted in a discriminatory effect."
Smith, 34, is accused of beating Christensen and cutting her throat with a pocket knife moments after his friend, Paul Clifford Ashton, shot and killed Brandie Sue Dawn Jerden and shot and wounded James Fiske.
In court papers, Smith's attorneys have said he killed the woman because he felt threatened by Ashton. Prosecutors have argued that Smith is cold-hearted and relished taking the life of a stranger.
They have alleged that several aggravating factors made the killing a death-penalty case: that Christensen was killed during a criminal episode in which two or more people were killed, that the homicide was committed incident to attempted kidnapping, that Christensen was killed to prevent her from testifying and that the homicide occurred in an "especially heinous, atrocious, cruel or exceptionally depraved manner."
The defendant is expected in court Wednesday for a review hearing.
Ashton, 36, was sentenced in 2013 to life without the possibility of parole for killing Jerden. That same week, he was also sentenced to life plus 10 years after pleading guilty in federal court to kidnapping a homeless man and aiding in his murder in 2010. He is serving both terms in federal prison.