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UTAH STATE PRISON — A man sent to prison nearly 20 years ago for his role in the murder of a man who had an 87-pound boulder dropped on his head is seeking parole.
Kenneth Paul Hunter, now 52, is one of six men convicted of killing Don Dorton, 36, in October of 2001. Hunter was sentenced to consecutive terms of five years to life for murder and 10 years to life for aggravated kidnapping.
Hunter appeared before the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole on Jan. 25. In a recording of his hearing, Hunter explained what happened on that night and what led up to it.
In 1997, Hunter was convicted of joyriding and received a suspended prison sentence. But two months later, he violated the conditions of his probation by committing an assault and was ordered to serve his original sentence of up to five years in prison. He was paroled in 1999.
But Hunter said he immediately went back to using drugs when he got out, mainly methamphetamine. "I never really stopped, even in prison," he said. "My life spiraled out of control."
While he was in prison, Hunter ended up joining the Silent Aryan Warriors, a white supremacist gang. He remained an active member after getting out of prison.
"The only way to not be excluded from things was to join with them," he told the parole board.
Then on Oct. 10, 2001, Hunter and other members of his gang were called to a residence where one of the co-defendants accused Dorton of stealing a small amount of meth. Hunter said he went there to help find the missing drugs.
"I figured we could go find the drugs and everyone could go their separate ways," he recalled.
The missing methamphetamine was eventually found underneath a bed in a room where children were sleeping, Hunter said. But the confrontation didn't end there. Hunter said some members of his group then accused Dorton of hiding the drugs under the bed.
"It just kind of went bad from there, probably because the supposed kids that were put in danger," Hunter said.
Dorton was assaulted and taken to a downstairs area where he was tied with duct tape. Hunter said he helped carry Dorton, but he did not know what happened in the basement because he was not there.
"My thoughts were, 'This is not going to turn out good.' Honestly, I did not think to intervene. I have no answer for that. I don't know why. But I did not think that," he told the parole board.
From the basement, Dorton was loaded into a car and driven away. Later that night, when the group reconvened, Hunter asked one of his co-defendants what had happened.
"He's like, 'You ain't got to worry about it,'" Hunter recalled the man saying. "And at that point I knew it was very bad."
Dorton's body was discovered near 4100 South and 8400 West on Oct. 13, 2001, by a couple walking their dog along a dirt road adjacent to Kennecott Corp. According to court records, Dorton was beaten, bound heavily with duct tape to the point of near-suffocation, wrapped in a sheet with more fabric around his head, taken to an isolated area in Salt Lake County, struck in the head with the boulder and left to die. At trial, prosecutors said Dorton somehow survived for a time and from all indications died a painful and horrific death.
Hunter was the last member of the group to be arrested in January of 2002. At sentencing, Hunter's attorney argued that his client was in "the wrong place at the wrong time" and that he was being treated differently because of his gang tattoos.
Prosecutors, however, said Hunter showed no remorse and minimized his role in the crime.
During his parole hearing, Hunter said he has changed. He said the moment he decided to take a new path in life was when he was sent back to the maximum security area of the prison in 2007.
"This is not how I want to do my time in prison, you know what I mean? It was my second time in max and I just told everybody, 'Look, man, when I get out of max, I'm going to try to live the best life that I can under the circumstances,'" he said. "You've just got to make up your mind. It's a choice you make in life."
Hunter hasn't had a disciplinary write-up since then, has earned a high school diploma, developed a strong work ethic, and has stopped using drugs — something he said was due to him watching all his friends who still used.
No representative from Dorton's family spoke at the hearing. Hunter, however, offered his condolences to them.
"I'm sorry that there isn't no victim's family here to hear this, but this is a horrific crime that should've never happened," he said. "It's something I've been living with for the last 20 years. But I've been able to live and their family member has not been able to live," he continued while getting a little emotional.
"I hope in their heart that they can find forgiveness, not for me or my co-defendants, but so they could find peace for themselves. I don't know what could ever bring comfort to them. It's a bad thing and they should have never had to go through it."
The full five-member board will now vote on whether to grant parole.
As for Hunter's co-defendants:
- Darren Neil Grueber Jr., the man that prosecutors say actually dropped the rock on the victim's head, was convicted of murder and aggravated kidnapping, first-degree felonies. He was sentenced to up to life in the Utah State Prison.
- David Woodson Campbell pleaded guilty to manslaughter and kidnapping, second-degree felonies, and was sentenced to one to 15 years in prison on each count, with the sentences ordered to run consecutively.
- Calvin Wesley Jensen pleaded guilty to manslaughter and kidnapping, second-degree felonies, but his prison sentence was suspended and he was placed on six years of probation.
- Larry Robert Rasmussen also pleaded guilty to manslaughter and kidnapping, second-degree felonies, and was sentenced to two consecutive terms of one to 15 years in prison.
- Gordon Pattan Graves was sentenced to up to five years in prison for homicide by assault and attempted kidnapping, third-degree felonies. The sentences were ordered to run concurrently.
