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Orem • A 16-year-old Utah boy — whose locker-room attack led one victim to play dead because he "thought this was the end" — admitted to some charges in juvenile court Tuesday and is expected to plead guilty to another charge in the adult court system.
After Luke Dollahite admitted Tuesday to four counts of attempted aggravated murder, several of the five victims who were stabbed by the teen stood in an Orem juvenile courtroom and told a judge about their terrifying encounter with the boy — who attacked one student with a staff and stabbed four others before stabbing himself in a locker room at Mountain View High School on Nov. 15.
Faint scars on their necks are signs of the trauma the victims experienced as the 16-year-old went on a bloody rampage. One boy, identified in court papers as A.D., told the judge Tuesday that Dollahite stabbed him once in the neck, attacked another teen, returned to him and stabbed him again on the other side of his neck. He took a final breath, he remembered, and played dead.
"I just kind of looked up at the ceiling," he recalled, "and thought this was the end."
But he, like the four other victims and Dollahite himself, survived.
There have been surgeries, A.D. told the judge Tuesday. Permanent nerve damage. There has been psychological pain. Anger. Resentment. Sadness.
As he stood before 4th District Judge Douglas Nielsen with his arm in a sling, A.D. said he often questioned why this had happened to him. But he began to have a change of heart, the teen said.
"I realized that [Dollahite] is human, just like everyone else," the teen said. "And he's made mistakes, just like everyone else. And I kind of just told myself that I need to move on and work through my feelings. Not let what happened to me hold me back."
Under the agreement, Dollahite agreed to admit to the four charges in juvenile court; he also agreed to plead guilty to a charge of attempted aggravated murder in the adult court system. This resolution, prosecutors said, allows Dollahite to receive treatment in the juvenile system before serving time in the adult system.
"This agreement allows him to age, and be treated and mature," Deputy Utah County Attorney Sam Pead said after the hearing. He can "accomplish those kind of things in the juvenile system before he goes to the adult criminal system and the Utah State Prison."
The judge on Tuesday sentenced Dollahite to serve an indeterminate sentence in a secure juvenile care facility, a term that cannot go beyond his 21st birthday. If the Youth Parole Authority decides that Dollahite has served his time in juvenile court, Pead said Dollahite likely will be moved to the adult prison.
Nielsen on Tuesday certified Dollahite to stand trial in adult court on one charge of attempted aggravated murder, though the teen has not entered a plea to that charge or made an appearance in adult court. Other charges were dismissed as part of the resolution.
The Salt Lake Tribune generally does not identify juveniles charged with crimes unless they have been certified for adult court.
In court on Tuesday, Dollahite appeared to listen closely to the victims' and their parents' emotional accounts, but he spoke very little himself. The teen's parents read a statement apologizing to the victims, and they expressed gratitude that their son will receive mental health treatment in the juvenile facility. They hope their son will never hurt anyone again, they told the judge.
The parents of one victim, who was not in court Tuesday, told Dollahite that they forgave him for what he did. The mother noted that before Dollahite attacked her son with the wooden staff, he "thanked him for being a friend."
The father told Dollahite that his son wanted to move on, which is why he didn't want to come to court Tuesday.
"My son will continue to heal," the man said. "I am so grateful that he survived. This will not define who my son is. And I hope for you, Luke, that this will not define who you are."