Former teachers at Roy Junior High School testified Wednesday that a 16-year-old Roy youth was constantly tormented by students before he was charged with murder in the slaying of a neighbor girl.
Sean Winget is charged with first-degree felony murder in the Oct. 13 strangulation death of Tara Stark. The 10-year-old girl's body was found in a drainage ditch near her home hours after she had been seen walking from school with the defendant.Anita Coleen Ure told the eight-member jury she tutored Winget throughout his junior high school days because the defendant was "intellectually handicapped."
She said Winget was constantly harassed by other students. "Many many many times I saw him (Winget) beaten up in the hall," she said. "I never saw him hit back."
Kathy Cook, another school employee, said she also worked with Winget, and when she first met him in 1990, "he didn't know which way was up."
Cook said she also heard other students ridicule Winget and call him names like "Wingnut."
Choking back tears, Cook said, "Most of the time he (Winget) ignored all of it. It never hardly let up. It was an ongoing thing for Sean."
Defense attorney John Caine has admitted to the jury that Winget strangled Stark with his hands, but that due to a mental and physical impairment, his client didn't understand the consequences of his actions.
Before the state rested on Wednesday, Roy Detective Jay Berger said that Winget told him he killed Stark because "a feeling came over" him.
Reading from a transcribed tape-recorded statement, Berger said Winget told him that he and Stark were walking along a dirt road near the ditch when he tackled her, strangled her and then threw her body in a ditch.
Berger said he asked Winget where the feeling came from and what it felt like, and said Winget replied that the feeling came from inside and that it was "scary" and "freaky."
When Berger asked him how Stark responded to the attack, Winget said, "I think mainly she just laid there. She wasn't doing anything."
Winget told Berger in his statement that Stark didn't put up a fight. "It was like she really didn't even care what I did," Winget said.
Sgt. Ed Rhoades also gave testimony that implied Winget had thoughts of killing another neighbor girl.
Rhoades said that after Winget was arrested, he found a document in the defendant's bedroom that was titled, "The Autobiography of Sean Winget." Rhoades said that in four places the document stated that Winget had attempted to kill a girl by the name of Amber Larsen. He did not read the diary.
During a break, Deputy Weber County Attorney Gary Heward said there was a girl by the name of Amber Larsen and that she may testify later in the trial. Heward refused to comment any further.