Colorado Man Pleads Guilty to Roadside Stabbing

Colorado Man Pleads Guilty to Roadside Stabbing


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MOAB, Utah (AP) -- A Colorado man pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the roadside stabbing of a man last week in southern Utah.

Graham Austin, 46, of Clifton, Colo., agreed to a plea arrangement Tuesday. In return, prosecutors agreed not to seek penalties for a capital offense, which could include the death penalty or life without parole, defense attorney Andrew Fitzgerald said.

"He wanted to take full responsibility for his crime and not drag the family of the deceased through a trial," Fitzgerald said Wednesday.

Austin admitted to the stabbing of Walter Pratt, 58, Sioux Falls, S.D., on May 9 along state Route 128 outside Moab. Pratt was stabbed and fell to the side of the road and his vehicle was driven away, witnesses said.

Fitzgerald said his client didn't know why he stabbed Pratt.

"He just knows he made a terrible mistake," Fitzgerald said.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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