Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
FARMINGTON — A father and son made their first court appearance Monday on charges of kidnapping and beating a woman and her four daughters before fleeing to Wyoming.
Meanwhile, police in Lincoln County, Wyoming, continued Monday investigating whether the two were involved in the killing of Utah Transit Authority employee Kay Ricks, whose body was found last week about an hour from the area where the two men were arrested.
In his brief appearance before 2nd District Judge Michael Allphin, Flint Wayne Harrison, 51, gave an almost imperceptible wink to family in the courtroom gallery as he entered. He requested a preliminary hearing be set for Aug. 9.
Son Dereck James Harrison, 22, who remained stone-faced through the proceedings, will return to court June 1 for a roll call hearing as defense attorney Ronald Fujino said he is conferring with family about hiring private counsel.
Both men will continue to be held without bail.
Susanne Gustin, Flint Harrison's attorney, said her client likely wouldn't be able to afford bail even if the option were given.
As the homicide investigation is ongoing in Wyoming, Gustin said the kidnapping case will proceed in Utah. She was unaware what evidence has been collected regarding her client and his son, she said.
"I was assuming that Wyoming's case would take precedence, but apparently they're going to let Davis County go first," Gustin said. "I don't know if that will change if charges are filed, but we've got a preliminary hearing coming up pretty quickly here so we're going forward."
Police say on May 10 the Harrisons used a ruse of meeting for a barbecue to lure a Clinton woman whom Dereck Harrison was acquainted with to a house in Centerville, 190 N. 700 East. Instead, they allegedly met the woman and her four teenage daughters with a shotgun, a baseball bat, zip ties and duct tape already ripped into strips.
The father and son took the woman and her four daughters — ages 13, 15, 17 and 18 — into the basement where they bound their hands and feet and began hitting the mother, according to police.
The girls either broke the ties or their hands were small enough to slip through them. As the two men tried to contain the females who were scattering, police said the men pointed a shotgun at them and hit them with the baseball bat. When they couldn't recapture the girls, the men fled.
The girls called 911 and police rushed to the home, where they estimated they missed the Harrisons by mere minutes, beginning a manhunt that would last almost five days.
Police have said Dereck Harrison may have been retaliating against the Clinton woman, believing she had ratted him out about something, though at the time investigators said there was no indication something like that had actually occurred. Family members told police the men had been using drugs for days and may have been in a state of methamphetamine-induced paranoia.
Flint Harrison, of Pinedale, Wyoming, and Dereck "DJ" Harrison, of Centerville, are each charged with five counts of aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony, and five counts of aggravated assault, a third-degree felony, among other charges.
After fleeing the home, police say the men ended up in Salt Lake City. On May 12, Ricks, of American Fork, disappeared from the vicinity along with his work truck in broad daylight. Ricks' body was found May 17 on a dirt road off U.S. 189, about 16 miles south of Kemmerer, Wyoming.
His truck was located Thursday in a wooded area near Half Moon Lake, the same area where both men had been apprehended days earlier.
No charges have been filed in connection with Ricks' death, but Wyoming authorities have said there are too many coincidences not to investigate whether the two cases are connected.
Contributing: Ladd Egan
Related
