Calvin Shane Myers appeared in 3rd Circuit Court Tuesday on two aggravated murder charges. If convicted, Myers could get two death sentences, one for killing a fetus.
Myers, 21, was arrested and spent Christmas weekend in jail while his family scrambled to find an attorney for his arraignment Tuesday. Attorney Rick Hall appeared in court with him for the arraignment, but told Judge Roger A. Livingston that the family would be hiring an attorney with more experience in capital murder cases.Irene Christensen was stabbed several times and her throat was slashed. She was about four months pregnant.
A snowmobiler found her body at the Rockport State Park in Summit County Dec. 18. A driver's license belonging to Steven Paul Howard was found several hundred yards from Christensen's body. Howard originally told police that he lost it and didn't know how it got to the state park. Questioned a second time, he told detectives he saw Myers stab Christensen twice and then ran to his car because he was upset.
Howard was arraigned just before Myers Tuesday on charges of obstructing justice.
According to court documents, Myers told detectives he knew she was pregnant at the time of her death and that he was upset because she was pregnant.
Prosecutors charged Myers with capital murder in Christensen's death and the same in the death of the male fetus.
Howard's preliminary hearing was scheduled for Jan. 24, 1995. Myer's preliminary hearing was scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 4, but Livingston said it could be continued if he was unable to find an attorney by then.
A Utah law enacted in 1973 allows a person to be charged with murder in the death of an unborn child, except in the case of legal abortions.