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KEMMERER, Wyo. — A Utah man who faces a possible death sentence if convicted of killing a Utah Transit Authority worker in Wyoming and dumping his body in a remote area, was bound over to district court on Thursday.
Dereck James "DJ" Harrison, 23, of Bountiful, was bound over to Lincoln County District Court during a brief hearing at the Circuit Court of the 3rd Judicial District in Kemmerer, Wyoming, according to a court clerk. Harrison's next court date was not immediately scheduled.
Harrison is charged with murder in the first-degree, a charge that carries a potential death sentence in Wyoming. He and his father, Flint Wayne Harrison, 51, of Pinedale, Wyoming, are accused of kidnapping Kay Ricks, 63, of American Fork, on May 12, 2016, driving him to Wyoming in his UTA truck, and then brutally killing him over an 18-minute period in a remote area about 16 miles south of Kemmerer where they left his body.
Ricks' death came on the heels of the kidnapping and assault of a Clinton woman and her four teenage daughters in a house in Centerville. After the Harrisons were arrested in Wyoming, they were extradited to Utah to face the kidnapping charges first.
DJ Harrison pleaded guilty in September to five counts of aggravated kidnapping and was sentenced to 30 years to life at the Utah State Prison. Flint Harrison committed suicide inside the Davis County Jail on July 25.
DJ Harrison was extradited back to Wyoming on Tuesday.
