Photo: Justice For Breezy And Riley/Facebook
After more than a month of testimony and three days of deliberations, a jury found a Utah man guilty of kidnapping and murdering two teens whose bodies were found in a mine shaft in 2018.
Jerrod Baum, 45, was convicted of two counts of aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping, desecration of a body and one count of obstruction of justice. His sentencing is scheduled for June 1.
On Mar. 28, 2018, a search team located the bodies inside an abandoned mine shaft near Eureka. Hours later, Baum was arrested and charged, the station reported.
AP/REX/Shutterstock.
Henderson told investigators that Baum forbade her from having “guy friends.” After Henderson thought the teenagers had left the house, Baum took her outside and she saw Otteson and Powell in the back of Baum’s Jeep, where prosecutors say their hands and feet were bound and their mouths covered with duct tape, according to allegations in the affidavit and charging document.
Baum made Henderson get into the Jeep with him and he drove to the Tintic Standard Mine, the documents allege. The tape at the teenagers' feet was cut so they could walk up to the mine, says Sheriff’s Sgt. Cannon.
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“Brelynne was forced to kneel near the open mine pit and witness the beating of her boyfriend, Riley Powell, and his stabbing, before she had her throat cut and was also thrown into the open mine,” Henderson told investigators, according to the court documents.
At the time, Deputy Utah County Attorney Chad Grunander described the teenagers' deaths as “heinous, depraved murders.”
Baum had originally faced a possible death sentence, but Utah County Attorney David Leavitt decided against it,theDeseret Newsreported.
Bill Powell, Riley’s dad, said the family is hoping for two sentences of life without parole. He told the newspaper that he felt “happy” when the guilty verdicts were announced.
source: people.com
