George Wesley Hamilton's former live-in girlfriend, Rita Weatherby, testified Wednesday that the defendant threatened to "beat me to a bloody pulp" if she didn't provide him with an alibi for Aug. 1, 1985, the day Sharon Sant disappeared while hitchhiking from Cedar City to Fillmore.
Despite Weatherby's testimony, the defendant's brother Jack Hamilton believes the retrial will vindicate the defendant."This (retrial) is long overdue. I know he is innocent. There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind," Jack Hamilton said. "Mr. (Robert) Bott is the one that is guilty as hell."
Bott, a drifter from Montana, originally was charged along with Hamilton with second-degree murder in the 1985 mutilation slaying of Sant, a Southern Utah State College coed.
During questioning by the prosecution Wednesday, Weatherby said, "He (Hamilton) had hit me in the past when he was drunk and I was scared. His personality changed when he was drunk. It was like something inside snapped."
Bott also threatened to beat Weatherby up if she didn't do the same for him, Weatherby testified. She asked both men separately why they needed an alibi and they said they had picked up a hitchhiker and took her home.
Bott's testimony in the case became invalid when he told authorities conflicting stories about the murder - first saying he knew nothing about the murder, and later, after believing he had been granted immunity, claiming Hamilton had killed Sant.
He eventually was released because authorities had no evidence linking him to the murder or crime scene except for his own statements, which 4th District Judge George E. Ballif ruled could not be used against him.
"I think he's (Hamilton) got a real good chance of being found not guilty," Jack Hamilton said. "But it's going to be a hard one."
Hamilton was found guilty in August 1987 and was sentenced to five years to life in prison. Ballif, however, ruled in February that a newspaper story about the first trial, which a juror brought into deliberations, tainted the verdict and was grounds for a retrial.
The newspaper story contained statements by Bott, implicating Hamilton in the murder and rape of Sant.
"I think it (the newspaper story) made a big difference," Jack Hamilton said. "I couldn't see any other possible way of him being convicted on the evidence they (prosecutors) had."
Sant's sister, Mary Jo, and two of the victim's friends testified Wednesday that Sant planned to travel Aug. 1, 1985, from SUSC in Cedar City to Fillmore to attend a funeral. But they said, she did not have a car.
"She said if she couldn't find a ride, she would hitchhike" from SUSC, where she was studying police science, said former roommate Cheryl Cox. Cox said she notified police Aug. 6, 1985, after Sant failed to return from Fillmore and after learning from family members that the victim never arrived.