An attorney representing a 16-year-old Vernal youth charged with first-degree murder in the death of a 6-year-old girl says his client should be tried as juvenile, not as an adult.
Roger Dale Strunk was charged with capital homicide, aggravated sexual abuse of a child and child kidnapping in the death of Veronica Fitzen, who disappeared from the back yard of her Vernal home on Aug. 7, 1988.Several days later, police said, Strunk confessed to killing the child and led them to her remains, which were found wrapped in a pillowcase near a road 25 miles north of the eastern Utah city.
Kirk Bennett, court-appointed counsel for Strunk, told a three-judge Court of Appeals panel Monday that the state's statute allowing some juveniles to be charged as adults without a prior certification hearing is too broad.
Utah law allows juveniles at least 16 years old to be charged as adults if they are accused of committing serious crimes.
Deputy Attorney General Creighton Horton said the Strunk case involved a capital crime, punishable by death or life imprisonment, and that the adult charge was justified.
"If ever there was a case warranting direct-filing, this is the one," he said. "There are no more serious offenses."