Convicted killer Walter Kelbach has waited 16 years too long to appeal his life sentence, a state prosecutor said in a brief filed recently with the Utah Supreme Court.
Kelbach is serving a life term at the Utah State Prison for two murder convictions stemming from a 1966 killing spree with accomplice Myron Lance, who also was sentenced to life.Assistant Attorney General Fred Voros filed the document in response to Kelbach's contention that he should be freed or have his sentence reduced because of errors in the lower courts.
Voros asked the court to dismiss the appeal, saying Kelbach not only waited too long but failed to prove his claims.
Because Kelbach filed the appeal "pro se," or without an attorney's help, the Supreme Court did not hear arguments and will decide the case based on Kelbach's petition and the state's response.
Six people died in the five-day rampage in the Salt Lake area in December 1966.
Lance and Kelbach were tried and sentenced to death for two of the killings but later admitted to all of them. The duo tortured and killed two 18-year-old gas station attendants in separate attacks, shot and killed a cab driverand fatally shot three other people in a Salt Lake tavern.
But in 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional, and the sentences were commuted.