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SEVEN BABIES DEAD
Utah police enlist FBI to help in baby death case
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah authorities are enlisting the help of the FBI to analyze DNA from seven babies found dead in the garage of a woman who has been arrested on six counts of murder.
Pleasant Grove Police Capt. Mike Roberts said Thursday that none of the labs in Utah can analyze the type of DNA that has been taken from the tiny corpses, which were found in various stages of decomposition.
Authorities are hoping DNA will reveal who the parents are.
The 39-year-old Megan Huntsman is being held on $6 million bail. She told police that she killed six of the babies from 1996-2006. One was stillborn.
Her estranged husband lived with her during the decade she says this happened but was in federal prison on drug charges from 2006 until January.
UTAH COUNTY-DEPUTY SHOT
Girl, 17, to stand trial in Utah deputy death
PROVO, Utah (AP) — A Utah judge has ruled there's enough evidence for a 17-year-old girl to stand trial for murder and other charges stemming from a crime spree that left one deputy dead and another injured.
Judge Darold McDade on Thursday morning ordered a trial for Meagan Grunwald.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports Grunwald will be back in court May 12 to enter a plea against the 12 charges she faces.
Authorities say her boyfriend, 27-year-old Jose Angel Garcia-Juaregui, fatally shot Utah County sheriff's Sgt. Cory Wride and wounded another deputy. Garcia-Juaregui died from injuries he sustained in a shootout with police.
Grunwald could face 25 years to life in prison if convicted. She is ineligible for the death penalty because she is under 18.
SYNAGOGUE SHOOTING CHARGES
Utah man guilty of hate charge in temple shooting
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A 21-year-old Salt Lake City man has pleaded guilty to gun and hate crime charges after admitting he shot out windows at a Utah synagogue two years ago.
A federal grand jury indictment accused Macon Openshaw of intentionally shooting at the Congregation Kol Ami synagogue in Salt Lake City sometime between Jan. 1 and April 30, 2012.
The Justice Department says he admitted in court on Wednesday he fired three rounds from a .22-caliber handgun at the unoccupied temple because of its religious identity.
Openshaw also admitted to possessing a handgun with a destroyed serial number.
His plea is part of a deal aimed at securing a five-year prison sentence. He also agreed to pay restitution for synagogue repairs.
His sentencing is July 15 before U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell.
SUSPICIOUS DEATH-TAYLORSVILLE
Police: Taylorsville woman's death a homicide
(Eds: Updates with police calling death a homicide, details about possible cause of death. APNewsNow.)
TAYLORSVILLE, Utah (AP) — Police are now calling the suspicious death of a Taylorsville woman a homicide after an autopsy indicated she was suffocated.
Unified Police said in a statement Thursday afternoon that the body was discovered a day earlier when officials were called to check on a 59-year-old woman who lives alone.
Officials say an autopsy indicates the woman was suffocated but it's not clear how.
Police are not releasing her identity until family members are notified.
Authorities say they don't have any suspect yet and are asking members of the public to share any information they might have.
Investigators found no sign of a force entry.
Neighbors tell KUTV the woman who lived there was a friendly, retired teacher.
RAPE KITS-BACKLOG
Police promise better handling of rape kits
(Information in the following story is from: The Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com)
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Salt Lake City police are promising swifter processing of rape kits, and they say they are starting a website to track the progress.
Police Chief Chris Burbank says officials will now post online information involved in hundreds of rape cases.
Burbank says the site won't list victim names or case numbers. But he says it will show if rape kits are sent on to the state crime lab.
The announcement comes after Salt Lake City Council members on Tuesday criticized a backlog in the processing.
The kits include evidence collected by medical workers, such as semen or saliva.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports in Salt Lake City, about 620 rape kits are waiting to be processed.
Burbank says his department will start posting cases June 1.
COLD CASE-OGDEN
Cold case suspect sentenced in Ogden girl's death
(Information in the following story is from: Standard-Examiner, http://www.standard.net)
OGDEN, Utah (AP) — A man accused of raping and killing an 11-year-old Ogden girl in 1983 has pleaded guilty to charges of rape and manslaughter.
After 46-year-old Gregory Seamons pleaded guilty in an Ogden court Thursday, a judge sentenced him to serve five years to life in prison.
The sentence will run concurrently with a prison term Seamons has been serving in Idaho for a 2007 kidnapping conviction.
Seamons was 15-years-old at the time Rebecca Lemberger's body was found in a shed. Authorities say she had been beaten to death with a rock.
The case was unsolved until Seamons' DNA was matched up with evidence from the crime scene in 2011.
The Standard-Examiner reports Seamons will transfer to a Utah prison when his term in Idaho is complete.
MISSING RIFLE-SHERIFF'S OFFICE
Sheriff: Missing M16 rifle was in deputy's safe
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A northern Utah sheriff's office says they've determined that an M16 rifle missing for years was in the safe of a deputy who forgot he had it.
The Davis County Sheriff's Office said Thursday in a news release that a deputy on the SWAT team was given the rifle for training before he was deployed to Afghanistan with the U.S. military in 2006.
Sheriff's officials say the unnamed deputy forgot he had it until seeing recent media reports about it being missing. The deputy is facing administrative action. Officials say the rifle was never on the street.
The deputy served 1 ½ years in Afghanistan, returned home and then deployed again. He has been home for several years.
The rifle came from a Department of Defense program that issues surplus equipment.
FALSE CAMPAIGN MAILERS
False Utah election mailings spur investigation
(Information in the following story is from: The Daily Herald, http://www.heraldextra.com)
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah elections officials say they don't know who in recent weeks mailed legislative endorsements and attacks purporting to represent a nonprofit group.
The Elections Director at the Lieutenenant Governor's Office said Wednesday the mailers went to Republican delegates in advance of the Utah County Republican Convention.
Mark Thomas tells the Daily Herald that anonymous apology letters later reached his office and candidates.
The letter said it represented views of the Foundation for Government Accountability, a nonprofit that advocates for health and welfare reforms nationwide.
Thomas says he doesn't know if his office will find out who sent the mailers but will work with the Utah Attorney General's Office to investigate.
The Daily Herald reports such a false claim could bring misdemeanor charges if investigators find the letter's creator.
TRENCH COLLAPSE-SURVIVOR
Injured Utah man digs self out of trench collapse
(Information in the following story is from: KSL-TV, http://www.ksl.com/)
CENTERVILLE, Utah (AP) — A 34-year-old Utah man is counting his blessings after he was partially buried by a wall of dirt that collapsed on him while excavating a pool in Centerville.
Luke Marti suffered a shattered pelvis, severed spleen, a broken collar-bone and ribs, but still managed to dig himself out of the mess on Wednesday.
Marti was buried from the knees down. The unstable situation kept rescuers at bay for nearly an hour. He told KSL-TV (http://tinyurl.com/lzl8hmn) from his hospital bed at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray he had to dig for 30 seconds then rest for 30 seconds to keep from passing out.
He says the thing that kept him going was the image of a portrait of his family. He's expected to be released from the hospital on Friday.
POLYGAMIST SECT-RANCH
Texas seizes polygamist group's secluded ranch
ELDORADO, Texas (AP) — State agents have seized a polygamous group's Texas ranch where hundreds of children were removed during a 2008 FBI raid prompted by child sex abuse allegations.
The group's leader, Warren Jeffs, is serving life in prison after being convicted of sexually assaulting two girls he took as child brides.
The Texas Department of Public Safety says its agents took possession of the secluded property near Eldorado on Thursday. In a statement, DPS says authorities were helping the remaining eight adults living on the ranch leave and to do an inventory.
A judge in January ordered the forfeiture of the Yearning For Zion Ranch, which was owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
The state sought to seize the property over allegations of mismanagement by Jeffs.
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