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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The parents of a woman killed during a shooting rampage in a Utah mall are asking a federal judge to impose a 99-month sentence on the gun-seller that provided the weapon.
Court papers filed Friday by an attorney for Ken and Sue Antrobus seek the maximum possible sentence for Mackenzie Glade Hunter, 20, of West Jordan. Their daughter, 29-year-old Vanessa Quinn, was among the five dead and four wounded by 18-year-old Sulejman Talovic at the Trolley Square Mall on Feb. 12.
Hunter has pleaded guilty to transferring a .38 Smith & Wesson handgun to Talovic, who also died during the massacre after being shot multiple times by police.
Hunter's sentencing is set for Jan. 14. Under federal sentencing guidelines, he faces up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine for the transfer charge and up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on a related drug charge.
Under the law, neither Quinn nor her parents are considered as victims in Hunter's crime, but the Antrobus' have also petitioned Kimball to be recognized.
"(T)he defendant's crime led directly and proximately to Vanessa's death - and helped embolden Talovic to commit the largest mass murder in modern Utah history," the couple's attorney Greg Skordas wrote in papers filed Friday.
Skordas argues Hunter should get the maximum punishment - minus two-and-a-half years for admitting guilt - because Talovic used the gun to kill people.
Prosecutors say Hunter told detectives he thought Talovic might use the gun in a bank robbery. Skordas has asked federal prosecutors to support his court petition.
Melodie Rydalch, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said that will only occur upon a judge's request.
------ Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
