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The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole has decided a Davis County man who already has served a decade in prison for his role in a teen's suicide-pact death will remain behind bars for at least another five years.
The board on Tuesday set the next parole hearing at July 2021 for Walter Andrew White, who is serving up to 20 years for child-abuse homicide and other crimes.
The inmate had his first hearing earlier this month, where he said he accepts responsibility for taking the life of 16-year-old Samantha Mikesell. White was 38 and had been having a sexual relationship with the teen for months at the time of her 2006 death.
White, now 49, has claimed he and Mikesell both considered suicide separately and came up with the phrase "if you go, we go" as protection against taking their lives. But on July 5, 2006, he went with girl to the foothills above Bountiful to commit suicide and provided her with a prescription medication, court documents say.
The girl ingested a lethal dose of imipramine — an anti-depressant sold under the brand name Tofranil that had been prescribed for White's use — and did not wake up the next morning, police have said.
White has said he also took the pills but probably survived because he had built up a tolerance to the medication. He dragged Mikesell's body to a more secluded area and also hid some of the pill bottles, according to court documents.
As part of a plea bargain, White pleaded guilty to second-degree felony child-abuse homicide, as well as unlawful sexual activity with a 16- or 17-year-old, dealing in harmful material to a minor and obstructing justice, all third-degree felonies. Prosecutors dismissed one count of third-degree felony desecration of a dead human body and one count of unlawful sexual activity with a 16- or 17-year-old.
Twitter: @PamelaMansonSLC