Clearfield man found guilty of murder for killing his dad with hatchet

SALT LAKE CITY — A jury found a man guilty of killing his father in a West Valley City home with a hatchet over two years ago.

Third District Court jurors heard evidence in the case on Monday and Tuesday before deliberating for about two hours on Tuesday afternoon, and again for two hours Wednesday morning. They found him guilty on each charge and determined that imperfect self-defense did not apply, or he did not think he was acting in self-defense when he committed the crimes.

Jeremy Ross Pulver, 48, testified at his trial that he was trying to protect himself from his father.

"I feel horrible. I feel devastated. I feel a tremendous amount of, of pain and uh, regret that I even got there. I also felt like, wow, I can't believe this happened," he said.

He ended his direct examination by saying, "I love my dad very much."

The charges Jeremy Pulver was found guilty of include: murder, a first-degree felony; obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony; three counts of possession of a weapon by a restricted person, a third-degree felony; drug possession, a class A misdemeanor; and drug possession and possession of drug paraphernalia, class B misdemeanors.

Deputy Salt Lake County attorney John Ham said in his opening arguments that John Pulver, 72, died from blunt force trauma after being hit repeatedly on April 26, 2024. He said there was blood found on the walls of his bedroom and throughout the house.

He said Jeremy Pulver made statements shortly after being arrested that "his dad had asked him to take him out," and that his dad had gone crazy and tried to hit him. Ham said the son admitted to attempting to suffocate and strangle his father before using a hatchet repeatedly on his father.

The hatchet, Ham said, was located in Jeremy Pulver's van when he was arrested at his home in Clearfield.

Throughout the trial, prosecutors called officers who spoke about responding to the scene and arresting and interviewing Jeremy Pulver, as well as investigators who helped process the crime scene and the man who performed an autopsy. The jurors were shown footage from officers' body cameras as well as video from a neighbor's security cameras showing Jeremy Pulver coming and going from the home.

Adam Rose with the West Valley City Police Department said John Pulver had baking soda on his face, and that there was a Walmart grocery bag in the bedroom he believes was placed on his head to attempt to suffocate him, along with an electric cord he thinks may have been used to try to strangle John Pulver or to seal the bag.

He said they did not find any firearms, knives or dangerous weapons at the scene, but he did find a portable tool bag he believed may have been Jeremy Pulver's since the man worked as a general contractor and a metal bottle that Jeremy Pulver had described in interviews.

The officer said he seemed "paranoid" during an interview.

After all of the witnesses, Ham pointed to Jeremy Pulver's varied accounts during his testimony in initial interviews, letters to his brother where he said his father "was suffering so much that I thought I was helping," and a phone call from the jail where he said he woke up and his dad was dead and he didn't know if he had anything to do with it.

During his testimony, Jeremy Pulver said he had seen a gun, but the prosecutor said in interviews he had only claimed he thought there could have been a gun or did not mention a gun. Ham also contested the reasonableness of the claim in Jeremy Pulver's testimony that he was holding a gun his father had dropped while he defended himself by picking up a bottle and hitting his father with it, wrapping a cord around his father's neck and reaching for a hatchet.

While Ham was cross-examining Jeremy Pulver, the man agreed that the hatchet just "happened to be" within arm's reach.

Responding to possible arguments that Jeremy Pulver is instead guilty of helping his father kill himself or was defending himself, the attorney said Jeremy Pulver went "way beyond" proving the means of death and "certainly was the aggressor."

"He clearly was under the influence of meth when this was all taking place, which explains his belief that he was acting reasonably in attempting to suffocate and then strangle and then take a hatchet to his father," Ham said.

The attorney told the jurors that corroborating evidence shows that the initial interviews had some correct information, along with some "bizarre statements." He encouraged them to go through and try to find it.

"He spoke the truth in those interviews, even though he was high on meth, in describing how he killed his father," Ham said. "What you heard on the stand was a fictional account."

In her closing arguments, Melinda Dee, Jeremy Pulver's attorney, cast doubt on the investigation by pointing out interviews that could have happened, but didn't — like an interview of her client when he was sober. She said prosecutors "glossed over" that John Pulver had almost three times as much meth in his toxicology report as his son — so much he was at risk of death from an overdose.

According to the attorney, the room was dark; Jeremy Pulver knew his father had guns and that there had been a history of abuse, all things which influenced her client.

"He felt a gun, he felt like someone was going to use it and so he reacted. ... Jeremy did act in self-defense; the state has not disproved that," Dee said.

She told jurors they could deliberate and decide whether he was justified in self-defense, but argued that if he was not justified, they should still find he acted in imperfect self-defense and find him not guilty.

Jeremy Pulver is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 2.

He was also found guilty of aggravated assault, a third-degree felony, during a jury trial in May on accusations that he had threatened a puppy owner who did not show up to an arranged sale of a puppy the day before his father's death.

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