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SALT LAKE CITY — A judge has ordered a Utah man to stand trial in the death of a 15-year-old girl investigators say he had harassed online after their relationship ended.
Third District Judge Royal Hansen ruled Tuesday there is enough evidence for Shaun Patrick French, 26, to be tried on a charge of aggravated murder in the 2018 death of West High School student Baleigh Bagshaw. Prosecutors have not yet indicated whether they will seek the death penalty.
French is also charged with sexual exploitation of a minor and newer counts of witness tampering after he allegedly made calls from jail seeking to persuade his brother and another man not to testify, court records show. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
On Monday, the first day of a preliminary hearing, his brother Cody French recalled Shaun French saying he had slit the girl’s throat and testified that his brother discussed suicide after their relationship ended.
Related:
Man says his brother admitted slitting West High student's throat
The preliminary hearing for a man accused of murdering a West High School teenager in her house got underway Monday, 15 months after she was killed.French’s attorney Nick Falcone said the main priority for his defense team is taking the death penalty off the table. French’s lawyers plan to argue in court papers that his calls from jail ended with him urging his brother to hire an attorney – behavior Falcone said doesn’t fit charges of witness tampering.
On May 7, 2018, Baleigh had been on the phone with her mother shortly after returning from classes when she was killed, police said. Investigators arrived at her home on to find a pool of blood.
Shaun French had previously lived with Baleigh’s family. Shortly before her death, the girl told her mom that she had engaged in a sexual relationship with French during that time, when she was 14, according to police.
A Salt Lake City detective testified Monday that before her death, French had a friend create a Facebook account that was then used to send intimate pictures of Baleigh to her mother.
French was arrested in southeast Colorado following a two-day manhunt. He is due back in court Oct. 21.
