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PARK CITY — A Murray man will serve at least 10 years in prison for holding a woman in his home and threatening to kill her and bury her body in the Salt Flats.
The woman said in court on Friday that Michael Curwick's actions have had a severe impact on her, including recurring nightmares and a need for unhealthy behaviors to control her emotions. She said if it weren't for Curwick's friend working with police, she believes she would be dead.
She said Curwick choked her, cut her hair, "waved (her) around like a rag doll," and talked to others on the phone about transporting her body and what would happen to her body after he killed her. She said he made two lethal drug doses to threaten her with, and had her write down names and addresses of other people he could "go after."
"I don't know if this horrible memory will ever leave me," she told the court.
Curwick, 48, was sentenced in 3rd District Court to 10 years to life in prison for aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony, in addition to one to 15 years in prison for possession of a dangerous weapon as a restricted person, a second-degree felony; one year for possession or use of a controlled substance, a class A misdemeanor; and 180 days for use or possession of drug paraphernalia, a class B misdemeanor.
Third District Judge Richard Mrazik said the sentences would run concurrently but consecutive to a federal sentence that Curwick will be serving for the next three years.
Charging documents said West Valley police officers were serving a drug search warrant at a Murray house when they found the woman bound with duct tape in a bedroom. The woman, 27, told the officers she had been staying with a man she knew as "Irish" for two or three days and he accused her of stealing from him and told her she could not leave.
The woman said the man repeatedly told her "that he was going to inject her with the hotshot and bury her in the Salt Flats with three other girls after he had killed her," and even made a phone call about getting a van to pick up her body, according to the charges.
Deputy Summit County attorney Fred Burmester asked for the maximum sentence for the aggravated kidnapping charge —15 years in prison — citing the amount of time the woman was held and the beating and humiliation she endured.
The judge mentioned that Curwick had gone 10 years without criminal behavior in the past, but Burmester said when he did get addicted again, he had drugs and firearms and struggled with impulse control.
"I think the community is better served with incapacitation for as long as we can incapacitate him," Burmester said.
Curwick's attorney, Sherry Valdez, argued for six years in prison, the minimum required by law, reasoning that her client is "aging out" of the behavior and his circumstances are no longer conducive to a lifestyle where he is on drugs. She said 15 years would mean he would be 70 by the time he could be released.
"I think that he could be sober; I think he could be a productive member of society if he's given the chance," she said.
Curwick apologized to the woman and said he takes responsibility for his actions. He said he is a good person and would not have acted that way if he was sober.
"None of this would have happened if I wasn't lost to my addiction and if I wasn't so far into my addiction," he said.
Curwick was sentenced in Utah District Court to one year in federal prison for possessing methamphetamine with intent to distribute and five years in federal prison for possession of a gun to further a drug trafficking crime in April 2022.
