Judge likely to order new trial for Orem man convicted of murdering wife

Judge likely to order new trial for Orem man convicted of murdering wife

(Sammy Jo Hester)


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PROVO — The decision of whether to order a new trial for an imprisoned Orem man who has long maintained he didn't murder his wife may come down to about 2 feet.

Attorneys for Conrad Truman, 34, have argued that evidence was misrepresented at his trial, pushing a jury to convict him of murdering his 25-year-old wife, Heidy Truman. At a hearing Thursday, 4th District Judge Samuel McVey said that, considering inaccurate measurements of the Truman home that were presented to jurors, he anticipates ordering a new trial, attorneys said.

At some point during the investigation by Orem police, a measurement of the Truman hallway was changed from 139 inches, or about 11.7 feet, to be 13.9 feet.

The judge said that, considering the inaccurate evidence presented that could have impacted the jury's verdict, there is a 98 percent chance he will order a new trial, defense attorney Mark Moffat confirmed Friday.

An official written order from McVey is expected in the next two weeks.

"Mr. Truman is innocent. He has been in prison over three years for a crime he didn't commit, so his ongoing incarceration is weighing very heavily on him and it's weighing very heavily on his family," Moffat said.

Moffat and defense attorney Ann Taliaferro said they will stay on as Truman's attorneys in any new trial. They came to Thursday's hearings prepared to argue all the points in the motion they filed last August, but McVey announced the measurement issue was enough to seal his decision.

As they await the judge's final decision, deputy Utah County attorney Ryan Peters said prosecutors are deciding what to do next. Peters did not confirm whether prosecutors will take the case to trial a second time.

"We're re-evaluating that as we speak," Peters said. "I can't comment on (a second trial) at this time simply because we have to wait and see what the judge's order says, we have to see what the judge specifically orders, whether that hampers us presenting certain evidence in the future."

Peters emphasized that prosecutors did not know they were using inaccurate measurements during the trial.

"It's shocking to us about the measurements, we would have never attributed false measurements to the jury," Peters said. "It's a blow. We feel horribly for everyone involved, particularly Heidy Truman's family."

Deputy Utah County attorney Craig Johnson argued in the hearing Thursday that, despite the inaccurate measurements, prosecutors believe there is ample evidence that Conrad Truman killed his wife.

Truman maintained during his trial and at sentencing that he did not murder her as the jury concluded, but that she in fact shot herself. He is currently serving 15 years to life in prison for murder with a consecutive one-to-15-year sentence for obstructing justice.

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Heidy Truman was shot once in the head in the couple's Orem home on Sept. 30, 2012. While Truman insists he heard a popping noise that night before rushing down the hallway to see his wife collapse from a self-inflicted gunshot, her family claims she was a tragic victim of domestic violence.

Following his wife's death, police said Truman reported at different times that his wife had shot herself accidentally, proffered reasons why she may have killed herself, or said that she had been shot by an intruder or a stray bullet from outside.

Prosecutors said the couple was under water financially and that, in an attempt to get money, Truman upped the life insurance policy on his wife and then killed her.

Moffat and Taliaferro, however, assert there was no financial motive for the crime, and disagree that Truman provided a variety of explanations of how his wife was shot. Rather, they say Truman was traumatized, confused and hysterical when unsympathetic officers pressed him for information immediately after the shooting.

Truman's appeal also cites the flip-flop by deputy medical examiner Edward Leis, who after the trial stepped back from calling Heidy Truman's death a homicide.

In an affidavit issued last August, Leis noted that in the days following Heidy Truman's death he had ruled that the nature of her death was undetermined. He amended the autopsy 10 months later to classify the shooting death a homicide following a lengthy presentation by police and prosecutors two days before charges were filed against Conrad Truman.

Leis indicated that part of his determination to call the shooting a homicide had been based on measurements and diagrams from police of the Truman home, which defense attorneys say are incorrect.

"I can no longer state with medical or scientific certainty which individual fired the shot on Sept. 30, 2012," Leis wrote in the court affidavit. "Based upon my consideration of the new and corrected information herein referenced, I can no longer rule out the possibility that Heidy Truman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head."

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