Court rejects Spanish Fork man's appeal of sentence for assisting classmate's suicide

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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Court of Appeals has rejected a Spanish Fork man's request to appeal his prison sentence for assisting in a classmate's suicide.

The court decided Tyerell Joe Przybycien had not shown his attorney was deficient by not talking to him about an appeal during the 30 days he would have had to file one following his sentence.

Przybycien, 24, was sentenced to five years to life in prison for child abuse homicide, a first-degree felony, and zero to five years for attempted sexual exploitation of a minor, a third-degree felony. His appeal says the sentence was not the one he expected when he pleaded guilty.

The man admitted in 2018 to buying rope, building a pedestal, tying a noose and speaking to Jchandra Brown, 16, as she passed out and died.

Brown was a cheerleader at Spanish Fork High School. Her mom said she had been making prom plans before she hung herself in Payson Canyon in May 2017. She said her daughter had recently lost her grandfather and broken up with her boyfriend, but she does not believe she would have taken her life without encouragement.

A statement read in the hearing where he pleaded guilty, which Przybycien said was factual, said he told officers, "I feel like I did murder her. ... That's what it is. Because I helped her so much. That was my plan."

On the day of her death, Przybycien picked the girl up from work and drove her to a spot near Maple Lake, court documents show. After turkey hunters found her body the next day, investigators found several items at her feet, including a receipt with Przybycien's name for the purchase of a rope, a note referencing the recording on her phone left there and a can of air duster, court documents say.

The Dec. 14 appellate court's recent ruling affirmed an earlier decision rejecting the appeal by 4th District Judge James Brady.

He argued it wasn't until 2020 that he became aware of a concern expressed by the district court judge in a September 2018 hearing about whether a charge fit the circumstances of the case.

At the time of Jchandra's death, Utah's criminal code didn't address penalties for helping a person carry out suicide. The case motivated Utah lawmakers to add the offense to the state's manslaughter statute in 2018. Przybycien's appeal argued his attorney should have talked to him about appealing his sentence based on the 2018 bill.