Plea deal possible in Utah kidnapping case tied to slaying

Plea deal possible in Utah kidnapping case tied to slaying

(Rick Egan, Pool, File)


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FARMINGTON, Utah (AP) — A plea deal is possible in the Utah case against a man accused of tying up five people in a basement and then killing a train worker in Wyoming while on the run from police, attorneys said Monday.

During his first court appearance since his father and co-defendant killed himself in jail, Dereck James "DJ" Harrison agreed to a delay in the case as lawyers work on a potential plea bargain. His lawyer Michael Edwards said there's no deal on the table yet but that Harrison is willing to wait.

Prosecutor Jeff Thomson said any plea offer would be made before a new hearing set for Sept. 12.

Harrison, 23, has pleaded not guilty to Utah drug and kidnapping charges alleging he and his father tied up a woman and her four daughters in a basement.

He's also charged with murder and kidnapping in the death of Salt Lake City train worker Kay Ricks in Wyoming, but won't face those allegations until the Utah case is complete. The Ricks family has called on Utah authorities to release Harrison to Wyoming so he can be tried faster.

Wyoming prosecutor Spencer Allred attended the Utah court hearing Monday. He said Harrison could face the death penalty in the Wyoming case, but prosecutors won't decide whether to pursue it until after he's sent there.

"We are standing and have been waiting for Utah to be completed," he said.

The death of Flint Harrison, 52, could make their job more complicated.

The elder Harrison told police his son was a killer who kept bloody knives as trophies, but statements like that may not be admissible in court after the father's death because they may be considered hearsay and Flint Harrison can't be cross-examined, said Utah lawyer Clayton Simms, a defense attorney who's not assigned to the Harrison case.

Prosecutors will tackle those questions as the case goes forward, Allred said. Flint Harrison had been facing the same charges as his son in both Utah and Wyoming.

Authorities say the two Harrison men invited the women over for a barbecue at Dereck Harrison's house outside Salt Lake City in May. When they arrived, the men tied them up and beat them until they managed to escape. The father and son had been using drugs heavily and wrongly believed the mother had reported them to authorities, police have said.

The Harrisons got away and dodged a police manhunt until they encountered Ricks during his shift, police have said.

They forced the 63-year-old worker inside his work truck and drove it to Wyoming. Ricks was beaten to death and dumped in the southwestern Wyoming countryside along the way to a remote hideout that was the Harrisons' last stop before their arrest, prosecutors said in charging documents.

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