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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Supreme Court has denied an appeal by white supremacist and convicted cop killer Curtis Allgier requesting to withdraw his guilty plea.
In a decision handed down Wednesday, the state's high court denied the motion Allgier filed on his own behalf claiming he had received insufficient counsel from his attorneys and arguing that Utah statute restricting him from taking back his plea is unconstitutional.
The court denied Allgier's motion, saying he was too late filing it.
Allgier — a white supremacist most recognized for the tattoos that cover nearly his entire body, including his eyelids — shot and killed corrections officer Stephen Anderson in 2007 when Anderson escorted him from the prison to University Hospital.
After shooting Anderson with the officer's own gun, Allgier fled the hospital on foot and stole a vehicle before leading police on a high-speed chase, with speeds exceeding 100 mph.
When the vehicle's tires were spiked, Allgier continued to flee on foot, eventually running into an Arby's restaurant on Redwood Road. There, Allgier pointed a gun at the head of an Arby's employee before a patron was able to wrestle the gun from him.
Allgier pleaded guilty to aggravated murder, disarming a peace officer, aggravated escape, aggravated robbery and possession of a dangerous weapon in October 2012. He also pleaded no contest to three counts of attempted aggravated murder.
At the time he entered his plea, Allgier waived his right to appeal and was informed that, under Utah law, he could only withdraw his plea up until the time he was sentenced, the court's decision notes. He was sentenced Dec. 5, 2012, to life in prison without the possibility of parole, making a lengthy speech in the courtroom and raising no objections to the deal.
Then, on Dec. 22, 2012, Allgier mailed the court a message from prison seeking to withdraw his plea and filed a motion to appeal his conviction.
While Allgier claimed he had also sent a letter one week after his change of plea hearing seeking to withdraw the plea, well before the deadline, the court's decision notes that no record of any such message has been found, either with the prison or the court.
The decision maintains that state statute limiting the time period for defendants to withdraw their pleas is not unconstitutional. It also explains that any claims that his attorneys did not sufficiently assist him must be addressed under the Postconviction Remedies Act.
Allgier has been representing himself in his appeal ever since January 2015 when he lost his right to be represented by an attorney. The Utah Supreme Court found that Allgier had threatened his appointed attorneys on multiple occasions and filed several motions to disqualify his lawyers without adequate reasons.
