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HARRISVILLE, Weber County — An Ogden man accused of shooting another man in the head at a Harrisville motel is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing on July 11.
Christopher Guy Graham, 39, was charged earlier this month in 2nd District Court with attempted aggravated murder, aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery, all first-degree felonies.
Just before 6 a.m. on April 26, Matthew Parkinson and his wife were at the Mt. Lomond Motel, 755 N. Harrisville Road, when police say two men and a woman burst into their room demanding money. One man was armed with a gun and another intruder had a baton, according to a search warrant affidavit unsealed Thursday in 2nd District Court.
During the confrontation, Parkinson was shot at close range in the head.
"Matthew was later released from the hospital with a concussion and minor wound to his head as a result of being shot. The bullet had ricocheted off of his skull which is what minimized the damage and likely saved his life," the warrant states.
Parkinson's wife, who was pregnant at the time, tried to protect her husband from the intruders, according to the warrant.
"(The wife) stated that she feared for her husband’s life and lay her body across his after (a suspect) brandished the baton. She was lying across her husband when Graham leaned in and shot her husband in the head," the warrant states.
According to police, Parkinson had gone to work early that day but started to feel sick and called some acquaintances to give him a ride back to the motel where he and his wife had been staying for a few months. After dropping him off, the acquaintances returned and accused him of stealing the night deposit from a local convenience store, the affidavit states.
Based on tips that came to police in the following month — including one by the wife herself who "observed a news report about a criminal hiding out in Park City, Utah — she stated that the suspect from Park City looked a great deal like the man that had shot her husband," according to charging documents.
That man was believed to be Graham, the charges state. Graham was arrested and charged. As of Thursday, no charges had been filed against the second man, according to court records.
