A Utah State Prison parolee is scheduled for a January trial on homicide charges in the shooting death of his former roommate over what prosecutors claim wasa drug debt.
Third Circuit Judge Eleanor Van Sciver ruled Wednesday there was sufficient evidence for Terry Wayne Perdue, 26, to stand trial on second-degree murder. Perdue is accused in the Oct. 19 shooting death of Jerry Kadell Hermansen.A city garbage truck driver found the body of Hermansen, 24, Sandy, about 7:30 a.m. lying on a grassy area on 50th West and 13th South.
Salt Lake Police Sgt. Don Bell, who interviewed Perdue five days after the body was found, said Perdue told him the pair went to the landfill Oct. 19 for target practice. All the while, the pair were discussing money Perdue reportedly owed Hermansen for cocaine.
"Mr. Perdue felt that Mr. Hermansen was going to use the revolver against him," the detective testified Perdue told him. He said Perdue told him the two men struggled, Hermansen started slashing at him with a knife and he shot Hermansen.
Van Sciver ordered the defendant held without bail in Salt Lake County Jail until the Jan. 6 trial.