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CEDAR CITY — Two Cedar City residents arrested in connection with a double stabbing are now facing felony charges.
Tyler Forrest Davis, 29, was charged Friday in 5th District Court with two counts of aggravated assault resulting in serious injury, a second-degree felony; obstruction of justice and unlawful possession of a weapon, third-degree felonies; and tampering with evidence, a class A misdemeanor. Brandy Rose Miller, 31, was charged with obstruction of justice, a third-degree felony.
About 11:40 p.m. Wednesday, police received a report of a fight in the 1000 West block of Brook Street and were told that a man may be lying in the road.
While police were responding to Brook Street, Cedar City Police Sgt. Justin Ludlow says friends of the man who was lying in the street took him and a second victim to a local hospital. Both men, in their late 20s to early 30s, had suffered stab wounds, he said. As of Thursday morning, both were "stable," he said.
When officers arrived at the crime scene, they "found fresh blood in the roadway" and a "blood trail" leading to a home at 1066 W. Brook Street, a police booking affidavit states. Officers checked the home and found "fresh blood throughout the residence, but no one inside."
Police learned that one of the stabbing victims lived at the residence. When both victims were questioned, "both said that Tyler pulled out the knife and came after them. Any action they took against Tyler was in self-defense," the affidavit states.
Investigators then traced a car that was seen leaving the area back to one of Miller's relatives. That relative told police she received a call from the couple asking to pick them up near where the stabbing occurred, the affidavit states. She then took the couple to her house.
"At the residence we located a pocket knife near a kitchen sink that looked like it had been recently washed. There was what appeared to be blood stains on the knife. There was also a shirt found in Brandy and Tyler's room that had wet marks on it and smelled of bleach," officers wrote in the affidavit.
Information gathered at that residence led the Iron County Metro SWAT team to a trailer home near 1200 W. Harding Ave. about 6 a.m. Officers used a loudspeaker to order the couple out of the trailer, prompting Davis to run out the back door, the affidavit says.
"He was caught going over a fence separating the trailer park and the freeway," according to the arrest report. "Tyler was interviewed (and) he admitted that an altercation occurred, during which he pulled out the knife and stabbed at least one person. Tyler claimed he didn't know he had stabbed two people. He claimed to not remember much of the incident."
Miller was arrested after claiming she did not know what happened.
"She then lied to officers about where she was during the altercation and claimed she didn't see it. Both the suspect, Tyler Davis, and the witness put her as being present during the altercation. Based on comments by them, there is no way she would have not witnessed the altercation, seen the blood, and had some type of idea what occurred," police wrote in the affidavit.
Both Davis and Miller are on probation out of California — Davis for an assault conviction, according to police. He admitted that his probation officer is not aware he is in Utah, according to the affidavit.
