Alexander James Bybee -- who was 16 years old in 1996 when he murdered a 6-year-old boy -- will serve at least another four years in prison, the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole announced Thursday.
Bybee will appear again before the parole board in August 2013.
Now 30 years old, Bybee is serving a five-years-to-life term for killing Lance Guevarra on Aug. 13, 1996, in the southern Utah community of Big Water in Kane County.
During a hearing last month, Bybee told the parole board that the slaying started with an accidental injury to the boy, followed by Bybee's fears of being punished by the boy's father, who lived next door.
The two boys were in a tugging match over a video game when the younger boy's arm broke. Bybee said he panicked, carried the injured boy a quarter-mile into the sandy desert, then stepped on the boy's windpipe until he was dead. He then buried the body and marked the grave with a milk crate.
Bybee tried to commit suicide in January 1997 after moving to Nevada, which landed him in a mental hospital. He confessed to the killing a month later. Bybee then led authorities to the boy's scattered, decomposed remains.
Bybee, who pleaded guilty to first-degree felony murder, said the victim was his cousin by virtue of a polygamous relationship.
