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SALT LAKE CITY — An appeals court has upheld a prison sentence of up to life for an Emery County man who shot and killed his mother and brother while high on meth in 2016.
Seth Gordon Peterson contended he was experiencing psychosis from the drug, a mitigating factor that fit a conviction of manslaughter for each killing. While a jury accepted the defense in his mother’s death, it found him guilty of aggravated murder in the slaying of his brother.
Defense attorneys for the 28-year-old Peterson argued the verdicts were inconsistent and the more severe conviction should not stand because the killings were less than a minute apart. They questioned if the jury understood its role.
The Utah Court of Appeals, however, found there’s sufficient evidence to support the aggravated murder conviction.
“Ample evidence supports the theory that Peterson acted intentionally and knowingly” when he killed his brother, states the opinion released over the weekend. For example, Peterson had told his uncles that “entities offered him ultimate power” if he killed his brother, it continues.
Related:
Mother of 15 and son killed in Carbon County; 2nd son arrested
A mother of 15 and one of her adult sons were shot and killed by another son of the woman near a ranch in a remote area of Carbon County Wednesday, sheriff's investigators said.The murder charge resulted in a heftier sentence of 25 years and up to life, while the manslaughter conviction carries a maximum of 15 years. A judge last year in Price’s 7th District Court ordered the prison terms to run concurrently.
Peterson was experiencing “meth psychosis” and believed he was facing two “demons” when he killed the two family members on Nov. 2, 2016, in a field near a farmhouse outside Hiawatha, Carbon County, according to his defense team.
He originally faced two counts of aggravated murder, a first-degree felony and potential capital offense, for the deaths of his mother, Susan Peterson, 45, and his brother, James Peterson, 23. Prosecutors did not pursue the death penalty.
A search warrant revealed he was paranoid in the days before the killings, believing police were following him and his phone was bugged.
