The retrial of a southern Utah man convicted in 1987 of murdering and dismembering a 19-year-old Fillmore woman was scheduled to begin with jury selection Monday in 4th District Court.
Two years ago last month, following a weeklong trial, it took an eight-member jury less than four hours to convict George Wesley Hamilton of second-degree murder in the Aug. 1, 1985, mutilation slaying of Sharon Sant. Hamilton was subsequently sentenced to five-years-to-life in prison.But Hamilton's conviction, which cost Millard County more than $200,000, was thrown out in February on grounds of jury misconduct.
Judge George E. Ballif granted a new trial about eight months after the Utah Supreme Court ordered him to determine whether Hamilton should be retried on grounds that a juror brought a prejudicial newspaper article about the case into jury deliberations.
The article dealt with the release from jail of Robert Bott, a second suspect in Sant's murder. Bott and Hamilton, 45, were to be tried together, but murder charges against Bott were dismissed for lack of evidence.
Originally, Hamilton was charged with first-degree murder. After deciding not to use Bott's testimony, however, prosecutors reduced the charge to second-degree murder.
Bott's incriminating statements about Hamilton and his involvement in the murder, which were not presented during the trial, appeared in the article in question. Millard County authorities had held Bott as a material witness, but decided to release him after deciding that his testimony was unreliable.
Ballif has issued a restraining order enjoining the media from broadcasting or publishing any of Bott's out-of-court statements published in the article. The order is effective until after the new jury has been impaneled, a process that is expected to take at least two days.
The original jury, by having access to evidence produced outside the courtroom setting, produced a tainted verdict and violated Hamilton's right to a fair trial, Ballif ruled.
Sant, a Southern Utah State College student, disappeared Aug. 1, 1985, while hitchhiking from Cedar City to Fillmore to attend a funeral. A road crew found her mutilated torso about two weeks later in a shallow grave off an I-15 exit at Cove Fort.
Parts of her body had been cut off and have never been recovered.
Hamilton, who has been held in the Millard County Jail since being released from prison in February, was tried in Utah County after Ballif granted a change of venue request.
Millard County officials aren't too happy about having to retry the case, but they're required just the same to pay another $100,000 or more for Hamilton's second defense.
Millard County Auditor John Hansen said the county spent about $200,000 on Hamilton's first trial, with defense costs totaling about $105,000. With a total county budget of $6 million, he said, the cost of another trial is a significant blow to county coffers.
The county will save some expenses on the retrial because evidence and detective work already has been done. Hamilton's defense, however, is expected to cost about as much as it did for the first trial.