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ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) - A man who pleaded guilty to killing one woman in a double slaying in a St. George townhome may not have been the shooter.
Witness James Fiske testified Monday that he remembers a different chain of events during the December 2010 altercation that left 27-year-old Brandie Sue Dawn Jerden and 20-year-old Jerrica Christensen dead.
Fiske said he believed 31-year-old Brandon Perry Smith killed Jerden. Prosecutors only accuse Smith of aggravated assault in Jerden's death, although he's accused of killing Christensen.
Fiske told the court he saw Smith shoot Jerden during an altercation between Jerden and Paul Clifford Ashton, 34.
Ashton pleaded guilty in July to killing Jerden in his home. He's been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The Spectrum reports Judge James Shumate acknowledged the witness account calls into question the life sentence he handed to Ashton.
Christensen reportedly had been asked by Fiske to help Jerden move the night of the killings. Somehow, the three ended up at Ashton's apartment, where Jerden was shot while Christensen hid in a bathroom.
It is believed Smith then attacked Christensen "with the intent to prevent her from testifying" about the shootings, according to an arrest warrant police wrote.
Fiske was shot during the incident but survived.
Contributing: Emiley Morgan
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