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Robert Cameron Houston was just 17 when he stabbed and raped a 22-year-old employee of a Clearfield home for troubled youth.
In 2006, Houston pleaded guilty to capital murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the slaying of Raechale Elton. After a weeklong penalty hearing, a 2nd District Court jury voted to sentence Houston to life in prison without the possibility of parole, making him the first juvenile in Utah to receive the sentence.
But Houston now claims his sentence is unconstitutional for several reasons, including that life behind bars is cruel and unusual punishment for a juvenile.
On Monday, his case went before the Utah Supreme Court, where attorney John Pace argued on Houston's behalf that his defense counsel in 2006 — Richard Gallegos and Dee Smith — was ineffective.
Pace told the high court that jurors in the case didn't receive proper guidance when it came to sentencing. He said jurors may not have considered whether mitigating circumstances — such as Houston's mental health — could have outweighed aggravating factors in the case and resulted in a lesser sentence.
Pace also argued Houston's attorneys didn't put enough experts on the stand to testify on human development and the notion that the boy's mental illness and sexual impulses could be tamed with medication. He argued that other expert witnesses could have testified on Houston's behalf that criminal behavior decreases with age — evidence for why the teen should have received life with parole, Pace said.
He also criticized Houston's counsel for not pushing to have the boy's trial in a different venue, particularly because the boy is black and not a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — which could have put him at a disadvantage with a conservative Davis County jury pool.
But Assistant Utah Attorney General Chris Ballard said Houston's punishment fit the vicious attack he launched on Elton on Feb. 15, 2006. Houston slit Elton's throat and tried to rip out her trachea because she wouldn't stop screaming, Ballard said. The teenager also tried to break the woman's neck in several different ways.
Houston had been placed at Youth Health Associates, where Elton was employed, by the juvenile court after two sexually motivated knife attacks, one on a young relative and another on an adult aunt. Because Houston was 17 at the time of the slaying, he was not eligible for the death penalty.
Ballard said Houston "pursued a course of premeditated violence" on Elton, even though he had already been caught and punished in the prior attacks.
"This was the appropriate sentence in this case," Ballard said.
Chief Justice Christine Durham intently questioned Ballard on that argument, asking whether the trial court applied the proper standards in jury instructions and if members of Houston's counsel did everything they could to ensure the boy received a fair trial.
"It's common knowledge that violent criminal behaviors decrease with age. Wouldn't it have been advisable to put an expert about violent offenses and aging [on the stand at trial]?" Durham asked.
Ballard replied the life sentence should stand because life without parole sends the message of a harsh punishment for a brutal crime.
The high court took the case under advisement Monday.
The high court's ruling could affect the outcome of several pending cases involving juveniles, including that of 15-year-old Hunter Farani, who is awaiting trial for the murder of 18-year-old JoJo Lee Brandstatt on a West Valley City golf course in 2009. Depending on the precedent Houston's case sets, it could influence whether Farani receives life without parole if he is convicted, Ballard said.
Several of Elton's family members attended Monday's hearing, including her father, Bruce Elton. He called coming back to court after putting the case of his daughter's slaying behind him "like rubbing salt in a wound."
He said members of the family received their own life sentence when his daughter was murdered in 2006.
"It's not appealable, it's forever," Bruce Elton said. "It's just what he got. It should stand. We hope it does."
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