Detective Allen Johnson testified in 5th District Juvenile Court that when he arrived at Dixie Downs Park on Jan. 10 - after police received an anonymous tip - he found Keely Amber Hall's partially clothed body.
Hall's cell phone was found nearby, he said, and investigators discovered her last call came from the then-14-year-old defendant.
The boy was picked up and questioned later that day. He subsequently was charged with first-degree felony murder, rape and aggravated sexual assault.
Prosecutors are asking Judge Thomas Higbee to send the case to district court so the boy can be tried as an adult. A conviction there would keep him in prison well beyond his 21st birthday, which is the incarceration limit in the juvenile system.
Johnson testified that the defendant told police he and some friends spent the day, before the early-morning killing, at a house in St. George, drinking and smoking pot. They later went to the park before the group broke up and left.
Johnson said the boy admitted calling Hall and arranging to meet her that same night in the park, where the pair talked about ditching school the next day. The boy said at one point he grabbed Hall by the leg when she tried to leave, the detective testified. She fell and called him a "bastard."
"That just pissed him off and he 'just tripped out,' " Johnson said the defendant told him.
The boy said he got Hall in a headlock and clamped his hand over her mouth, the detective testified. The two scuffled, Johnson said, and he raped her.
Under questioning by defense attorney Kenneth Combs, Johnson testified the defendant never admitted he intended to kill Hall.
Higbee ruled there was probable cause to hold the boy and set a hearing for July 5 to determine if expert witnesses can be allowed to testify for the defense when the judge considers, at a later hearing, whether to send the case to district court.
Higbee has barred reporters from publishing the defendant's name or race.
The boy was in court Thursday, sitting at the defense table with his mother. Family and friends of the victim also were on hand, sobbing at times.
mhavnes@sltrib.com
