This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A 25-year-old Smithfield man — charged with fatally stabbing his father in the street outside the defendant's home last week — hugged the older man, then jumped on his back and stabbed him in the neck with a paring knife, according one of several witness accounts of the vicious attack.
Shane Alan Hallstrom has been charged in 1st District Court with first-degree felony murder in the Thursday death of 58-year-old Calvin Leon Hallstrom. The crime is punishable by up to life in prison.
Shane Hallstrom's mother, LaDean Hallstrom, who is Calvin Hallstrom's ex-wife, said she was able to pull her son's hand off the knife and remove it from Calvin Hallstrom's neck following the attack, according to a probable cause statement filed by police with the Cache County jail.
The woman then tried to put pressure on the man's wound, but her son tried to stop her. She then took the knife into the house and called 911, the jail statement says.
As she was on the phone, she saw her son "slamming Calvin's head on the concrete, the jail statement says.
LaDean Hallstrom later told police that "Calvin and Shane had a strained relationship."
Smithfield Police Chief Travis Allen has said that officers responded to a 5:33 p.m. Thursday 911 call reporting a fight outside 380 E. 160 South. They found the victim unconscious on the pavement, bleeding heavily from multiple knife wounds to the neck. He was rushed to Cache Valley Hospital, but died a short time later.
A Smithfield officer and Cache County sheriff's deputy found the son kneeling in the street a few feet away from his father.
Shane Hallstrom's grandmother, Shirley Hallstrom told police that her son, Calvin Hallstrom, was "happy because Shane had called him and they were going to reconnect their broken relationship," according to the jail statement.
Calvin Hallstrom had planned to take his son to Chuck-O-Rama and had gone to the bank to withdraw $40 to pay for dinner, Shirley Hallstrom told police. She said she had written some "small notes and sent them with Calvin to give to Shane," the jail statement says.
Other witnesses to the fatal stabbing were a 15-year-old neighbor boy who watched it through the front window of his home after hearing a loud scream, the jail statement says.
The teen said he heard a female say, "Stop! You're killing him!" and then watched as the suspect stabbed the victim possibly 10-30 times.
A nurse, who was driving by, told police she saw an unresponsive male face down on the ground and another male sitting cross-legged nearby, who appeared "really calm," the nurse said.
When the nurse asked the male what had happened, the male replied: "I'm the one who stabbed him," the jail statement says.
A male who was skateboarding past described hearing "three loud, high-pitched squeals" and looked over, but thought it was kids playing, the jail statement says. When he later heard what had happened, he returned to talk to police.
"A motive to the attack has not been established at this point," Chief Allen said last week.
Shane Hallstrom, who was being held without bail at the jail, made a first court appearance on Monday.
An attorney was appointed to represent him and another court hearing was set for May 9.
Calls to the defendant's attorney, and to his mother and grandmother, were not immediately returned.