Posted on 03/19/2015 11:28:47 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A 12-member jury deliberated less than 90 minutes before finding Doug Lovell guilty Wednesday of the 1985 killing of Joyce Yost of South Ogden.
A likely week-long sentencing begins Friday with the same jury weighing sentences of death or life in prison with possible parole. Life without parole is not an option. That choice was added to the capital homicide in 1993 and is not retroactive to 1985, when Yost was killed.
In closing arguments lead prosecutor Gary Hewad said at least four times the evidence against Lovell amounts to guilty not just beyond reasonable doubt as required by law, but beyond any doubt.
“When you put it all together, it's beyond all doubt,” Heward said. “There is nothing before you that indicates otherwise.”
Heward ticked off the “mountain” of evidence against Lovell, including Lovell's own sworn in testimony at his 1993 sentencing hearing after he pleaded guilty to Yost's murder. He was sentenced to death at the time. But after years of unsuccessful appeals the Utah Supreme Court in 2010 allowed Lovell to withdraw his guilty plea, citing procedural errors in the taking of the plea in 1993.
The transcript of Lovell's admissions on the stand in 1993 was read into the record during the two-day evidence phase of the trial, plus that of a prison buddy of Lovell's, Tom Peters, since deceased. He said Lovell paid him $800 to kill Yost, but he reneged on the contract.
Lovell also described details of the killing and burying Yost in Ogden Valley to his ex-wife during prison visits in 1991 and 1992. She was wearing a wire for police at the time. Those transcripts were also read into the record during this week's trial.
Lead defense counsel Mike Bouwhuis, in his 4-minute closing argument, essentially conceded the guilty verdict.
“What Doug Lovell did in 1985 was absolutely horrible,” he said. But he reminded jurors that during jury selection they all said they would wait on deciding any penalty, on what Lovell might deserve, until they heard the whole case.
“You haven't heard the whole story,” Bouwhuis said. “During the sentencing hearing we will fill in the gaps.”
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