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SALT LAKE CITY -- A man accused of killing a 10-year-girl over a decade ago is in court waiting to see if he'll be bound over for trial for her death.
Anna Palmer was found stabbed to death on the front porch of her home in September of 1998. The case went unsolved for years, and quickly became one of the Salt Lake City Police Department's highest profile cold cases. Finally, DNA evidence linked the killing to Matthew John Breck.
Breck was charged in January 2010 with aggravated murder, aggravated sex abuse of a child and child abuse in connection with Anna Palmer's death.
Witnesses describe Breck
During his preliminary hearing Tuesday morning, Breck sat leaning forward in his chair, often whispering to his attorneys as witnesses described Breck as a man who liked to party. They say he walked around the neighborhood with an aura of arrogance, talking to people as if he wanted to pick a fight. They also said Breck always carried knives and often showed them off to his friends.
Todd Clark said he met Breck and his brother, Tom, while living in California. When a good turn led to steady employment and a home in Utah, Clark said he wanted to return to favor and "pay it forward." He invited Tom Breck to come to Utah, which he did, with his brother Matthew Breck arriving soon after.
"He carried himself like he was 6 foot 6, 300 pounds," Clark said of Matthew Breck. "If he was walking down the sidewalk, he wanted everybody to know he was there."
But while Clark said he "partied" with both of the Brecks, his wife didn't like Matthew.
"My wife felt weirded out from Matthew," he testified. "She didn't want him around the kids. She was afraid of him."
Clark's wife, Terri, testified that she, in fact, was the one who told a police officer she worked with at an area grocery store to "look into" Matthew Breck when it came to Anna Palmer's murder. She said she mentioned it in a conversation around 2006.
As many as a dozen witnesses are expected to take the stand for prosecutors throughout the course of the preliminary hearing, which is expected to run through Thursday. Defense attorneys have indicated they will also call witnesses, but potentially at a different date.
Anna's mother takes the stand
Prosecutors also had Anna Palmer's mother Nancy Palmer take the stand and describe what it was like to come home and find her 10-year-old daughter murdered and left on the front porch.
On Sept. 10, 1998, Anna called her mother, Nancy Palmer, around 5 p.m. and asked if she could play with friends. Her mother returned to their home near 1600 South and 300 East in Salt Lake City at 7 p.m., unusually late, and found her lifeless daughter.
"I looked at her and I knew she was probably gone," Palmer testified Tuesday in 3rd District Court. "Her face was waxy, pale, yellowy color, like there was no blood flow."
Nancy Palmer spoke of how she touched her daughter's hand and found she was cold to the touch, prompting her to immediately call 911.
"(Dispatchers) instructed me to do CPR, and I told them it wasn't working because she had a hole in her throat," she said. "They told me to put my hand over it and try it that way."
She testified that paramedics arrived within minutes, but that "it seemed to me like a long time." They transported the girl to the hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Before her death, Nancy said Anna was "like a little socialite," spending time with all of the children in the neighborhood.
When Palmer was murdered in 1998 police ended up tracking down over 1,000 leads, but the case went cold. Investigators at the time were frustrated by the lack of witnesses, despite the fact that the killing took place during the day near a busy intersection. An $11,000 reward turned up numerous leads, but none led to an arrest.
But police did keep trimmings from the little girl's finger nails with their collection of evidence. It was those trimmings that were tested years later for DNA evidence. The DNA matched up with then-19-year-old Matthew Breck, who lived in the same neighborhood as Palmer back when the murder happened.
At the time of the discovery, Breck was already locked up in an Idaho prison for sexually abusing a child.
At the conclusion of the hearing, 3rd District Judge Judith Atherton will determine whether there is enough evidence to order Breck to stand trial.
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Story written with contributions from Emiley Morgan and Randall Jeppesen.
