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Jesse Santistevan hadn't planned to speak at his father's sentencing for murder.
However, after listening to his relatives' tearful statements about a mother he does not remember, the 15-year-old stepped up to a podium just yards from the man who raised him.
"I love my dad," Santistevan said, facing Billy Charles. "I just hope one day he'll realize what he did is wrong and that God forgives him."
Charles was sentenced to five years to life in prison for beating and strangling 18-year-old Jamie Ellen Weiss, his fiancee and Santistevan's mother, in 1996 at their Magna home.
Charles and his family insist he is innocent.
"Whoever did this is out free, laughing at this courtroom," Charles told 3rd District Judge Deno Himonas on Thursday.
Santistevan was the one who opened the door in his apartment in West Valley City two years ago to find detectives at the threshold, there to arrest his father in the 11-year cold case.
"I was in shock," Santistevan said. "All he'd told me my entire life was, 'I didn't do it.' "
As charges were filed and court dates set, Santistevan said he "didn't know what to think."
He said it wasn't until the trial that he became convinced of his father's guilt.
"That's when I got to know all the information," he said.
Santistevan, who has taken his grandmother's last name, was 2 when Charles' sister and Weiss' grandmother found him playing naked and alone in
His mother was found submerged in a bathtub in their home, but an autopsy showed she died from blunt force trauma to the head and asphyxiation, not drowning.
There was no water in her lungs.
At trial, a jail inmate testified Charles had told him at the jail that Weiss' death "wasn't supposed to happen" and that "she was gone when we put her there ... in the tub."
No accomplice has been identified.
In Thursday's sentencing, prosecutor Vincent Meister pointed to police reports indicating Charles had a history of drugs and domestic disputes with other women.
Charles' son agreed with the prosecutor.
"He was abusive, and he has a very short temper," Santistevan said later.
Santistevan said he didn't decide to speak in court Thursday until his grandparents, aunt and great-grandfather told the judge, one after another, that Charles' greatest crime was against his son.
Santistevan was "robbed" of his mother's love, said Andraya Nelson, Weiss' sister.
"I don't know how he could have done it," Santistevan told Himonas while looking at Charles. "I'm just glad it's all over and I know the truth."
Charles shook his head vehemently as his family wept.
"I felt there was a lot of doubt in this case," said Charles' attorney, Robin Ljungberg. Charles' family declined to comment.
Ljungberg said Charles is considering an appeal.
"I will fight until my death to keep you from ever leaving prison," Weiss' mother, Deborah Nelson, told Charles. "As long as you deny this ... you are a danger to everyone, especially women."
