Prosecutors Thursday painted the first-degree murder case of David Franklin Young as "simple" and said his own confession should convince jurors he raped and killed a Salt Lake County woman.
"He knew what he did. He knew when he did it, how he did it and why he did it. And he tells us in his own chilling words," said prosecutor Glenn K. Iwasaki, rebutting contentions by the defense that Young had diminished mental capacity.Third District Judge Timothy Hansen ruled there was no evidence Young had diminished mental capacity, responding to defense attorneys' request to enter a plea of mental illness.
Young, 28, is charged in the beating death of Kimberly Ember Mars, 27, whose nude body was found in the bedroom of her home Aug. 19, 1987. The victim had been raped, stabbed repeatedly, beaten with an iron and smothered.
Defense attorneys Wednesday submitted a statement by an Illinois police detective that contradicted a statement Young gave to Salt Lake County Sheriff's Detective Richard Judd on May 20, 1988, in which he allegedly admitted killing Mars.
According to the Salt Lake statement, Young met Mars at a truck stop and later took her to her house, where he intended to wait until the banks opened in order to steal her money.
Young purportedly told Judd that after he killed Mars, he showered to wash away her blood, took her credit cards and left in her truck.
But in a statement given to Illinois police following his arrest, Young said he and Mars fell asleep together in her apartment and that he awoke the next morning covered in blood. He claimed he didn't remember killing the woman, but he took a shower to "clean up" and left in Mars' truck.
The case was expected to go to the jury Thursday afternoon.