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SALT LAKE CITY — John Paul White just really didn't want to have to make his mother another cup of coffee, according to what he told police.
"He said that (his mother) asked him for a cup of coffee and that was basically 'the last … time I was making her a cup of coffee,'" South Salt Lake police detective Darren Carr recounted.
Carr testified at a preliminary hearing Wednesday for White, 22, who was ordered to stand trial by 3rd District Judge Judith Atherton on one charge of murder, a first-degree felony, in connection with the November 2010 slaying of his 62-year-old mother.
He said that (his mother) asked him for a cup of coffee and that was basically 'the last … time I was making her a cup of coffee.'
–South Salt Lake police detective Darren Carr
Mary White's body was found in the South Salt Lake apartment she shared with her son with multiple stab wounds to her throat — including one that had the knife still in it. Edward Leis, Chief deputy medical examiner for Utah, testified that the woman died as a result of sharp force injuries and had several lacerations on her neck, one of which cut through her jugular vein.
John White later told police he learned where the crucial vein was from a physiology class.
"He confirmed it was what he had learned and that (cutting the vein) would kill any animal in nature," Carr testified. "He said: 'I know what I hit.'"
Linda Allred, who manages the apartment complex where the Whites lived and knew them as their across-the-hall neighbor, said she became concerned after she didn't see Mary White for a few days and then was told John White was in the hospital.
"I was scared Mary was hiding and I was trying to tell Mary that John wasn't in trouble, just in the hospital," she said. She tried to shout the information to Mary White through the locked door before deciding to ask another tenant to enter the apartment.
That tenant, Jason Sorensen, climbed a ladder to the residence and found an open bedroom window to crawl through.
"I was saying Mary's name, asking if she was in there," he said. "I got to the bedroom door and saw her feet."
He immediately told Allred and another tenant to call for help. Officers later tracked down John White, who had been hospitalized after ingesting a number of his mother's medications with some carpet cleaner and losing consciousness at a fast food restaurant. When Carr and another officer went to interview White in the hospital, his demeanor was "flat" and "matter of fact."
"He admitted to killing (Mary White)," Carr said. "(John White) said it was 'spur of the moment, but once I decided, it was something I wanted to do.'"
White first tried to strangle his mother with an iPod charger cord but when it broke, he decided he wanted, instead, to decapitate her and used "his favorite Alaskan knife," Carr said.
An arraignment for White has been scheduled for June 6.
Email:emorgan@ksl.com
