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SALT LAKE CITY — A trained ballerina, Erin Warn said she has long studied bodies, mannerisms and faces.
So, when a man armed with a knife invaded the apartment where she was visiting a friend, she took note. Years later, she would identify the man in court as Donald Eugene Younge, 45, who has been charged with capital murder in connection with the 1999 killing of Amy Quinton, 22, who was in the home with Warn and one other woman, Lynn Drebes.
Warn was also stabbed during that visit after she asked the intruder to return her identification.
"How certain were you this was the person who stabbed you?" prosecutor Vince Meister asked Warn at a hearing on Monday.
"One-hundred percent," Warn replied.
But Younge is challenging the reliability of the testimony of Warn and the other woman in the apartment. Defense attorney Mike Misner said Warn never identified Younge in the numerous photo lineups she was shown over the years.
"She picked him in the courtroom," Misner said after the hearing on the reliability of eyewitness testimony in the case. "The one black person sitting at the defense table in an orange jumpsuit with chains ... you can't be any more suggestive than that."
Warn testified that it wasn't until Younge stood up that she was able to see his body and feel sure he was the man who stabbed her.
The case went unsolved for years until DNA evidence pointed to Younge, who was being held in an Illinois jail facing three murder charges in the deaths of three women there as well as a sexual assault charge involving a fourth woman.
"I've been imagining him in my mind for a long time," she said. "If I see him, I'll know him."
Warn had stopped by the apartment Drebes and Quinton shared the night of Aug. 3, 1999 to drop off her cat before a trip to Alaska, she testified Monday in 3rd District Court. She and Drebes were watching a movie around midnight when Drebes walked to the kitchen for more pizza and beer. The next thing Warn heard was a "surprised, scared, terrified" scream.
"I saw a man with a knife held to Lynn's throat," she said.
All she could see was the man's arm spanning her friend's body. She went back into Drebes' room, crossed through a bathroom to Quinton's room and told the woman to call 911. She had just picked up the phone when the man walked in.
"He came in, still holding the knife to Lynn's throat, and said: 'Hang up the phone or I'll kill your friend' ... or something to that effect."
When dispatchers called back, the man assured them the 911 call had been a mistake. Drebes shouted in the background that they were in trouble. All the while, Warn said she was studying the man's body, face and eyes.
The intruder then asked for the women's wallets, which Warn said she handed over. She testified that the man was walking out the door to leave when she asked him for her identification.
"That's when I was stabbed," she said. "I felt like I was just punched. I had the wind knocked out of me."
Drebes was trying to hide Warn in a closet when she heard Quinton scream. Warn would spend six days in the hospital after being stabbed in the chest. Quinton was killed after also sustaining a stab wound to the chest.
A police composite artist also testified at Monday's hearing as did officials with the Utah State Prison and the Millard County Sheriff's Office. The hearing will be continued at a later date and Drebes is expected to testify at that time, Misner said.
The case went unsolved for years until DNA evidence pointed to Younge, who was being held in an Illinois jail facing three murder charges in the deaths of three women there as well as a sexual assault charge involving a fourth woman. Those cases fell apart for several reasons, including the death of the alleged sexual assault victim in an unrelated crime.
Younge was also charged and convicted by a jury in connection with the rape and robbery of a University of Utah student in 1996. He was sentenced to 31 years to life in prison for two counts of aggravated sexual assault, a first-degree felony, and robbery, a second-degree felony.
After the 1996 incident, Younge's identity was not known, but his DNA was recorded. After Younge was arrested in Illinois, Utah law enforcement officials linked him to the rape.
Email:emorgan@ksl.com
