Man ordered to stand trial in deaths of 2 Tremonton officers

BRIGHAM CITY — The man accused of killing two Tremonton-Garland police officers last year has been ordered to stand trial.

Ryan Michael Bate, 33, is facing the death penalty for two counts of aggravated murder, a capital offense, along with more than a dozen other charges. First District Judge Spencer D. Walsh issued a ruling Thursday, ordering Bate to stand trial for the deaths of Tremonton-Garland police officer Eric Estrada, 32, and Sgt. Lee Sorensen, 56.

Chief Deputy Attorney Blair T. Wardle explained in closing arguments that the prosecution believes Bate intended to kill the officers who responded.

"This case is about a planned and premeditated ambush that began with the defendant terrorizing his family and ended with him terrorizing the community," Wardle said.

State prosecutors argued in the June preliminary hearings that Bate targeted law enforcement officials who responded to his residence for a domestic violence call on Aug. 17, 2025. During Bate's alleged "rampage," he killed Estrada and Sorenson, and injured Box Elder County sheriff's deputy Mike Allred and his police K-9, Azula, a 3-year-old female Belgian Malinois, prosecutors said.

Similar to his first in-person court appearance in June, Bate was hunched over Thursday, with his head held low throughout the proceedings, never once lifting his eyes.

The prosecution amended the charges filed against Bate, condensing the two attempted aggravated murder charges, which stemmed from the two gunshots that injured Allred and Azula, into one charge.

The move trimmed down some of the aggravating factors on the two counts of aggravated murder for the deaths of the officers and the attempted aggravated murder charge for the shot that hit a fleeing neighbor's vehicle. Two of the domestic violence related misdemeanors were also reduced to a lower class.

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