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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A 20-year-old St. George woman was beaten, bound and killed because she knew something incriminating about defendant Jack Daniel Brown, court documents allege.
Trisha Stubbs was shot in the head in January. Her body was left by a country road east of Toquerville.
She was killed to prevent her from testifying or providing evidence, or in retaliation for doing so, according to the capital murder charges filed against Brown last week in 5th District Court.
Details of what Stubbs knew are not disclosed in the charging documents.
At the time she was killed, Stubbs was facing charges of possession of amphetamines and drug paraphernalia.
Earlier court documents said Stubbs was with Brown at a St. George store when Brown allegedly used a stolen credit card to purchase items on Nov. 14.
Two of Brown's co-defendants claim that on Jan. 4, Stubbs was brought to a house where she was severely beaten, bound with duct tape and gagged. They say she was then driven to the spot where she was shot at least twice in the head with a .357-caliber handgun.
Her body was found three days later by two people riding all-terrain vehicles.
Brown failed to appear in 5th District Court on Jan. 6 on charges of theft of an operable vehicle and forgery, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
The co-defendants, Tina Eileen Roberts, 35, of Hurricane and Kyle Sheldon Jensen, 20, of Ivins, initially were charged with murder but pleaded guilty on March 29 to aggravated kidnapping and are to be sentenced on May 10 at 10 a.m.
As a condition of their plea deals, Roberts and Jensen have agreed to testify against Brown.
Roberts said she participated in the beating of Stubbs. Jensen said he assisted in binding her and in carrying her to the car used to take her to the scene of the death. Roberts and Jensen said they were present when the woman was shot.
In addition to capital murder and aggravated kidnapping, Brown is charged with second-degree felony obstruction of justice. A probable cause statement says that Brown disposed of "numerous items of evidence."
Brown, 26, was arrested in Las Vegas on credit-card allegations and was held in jail there until Thursday, when he extradited and booked into Purgatory on $1 million cash-only bail.
Washington County Attorney Brock Belnap said he has not decided whether to seek the death penalty should Brown be convicted
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
