A teen who shot a friend eight times in the head at close range in 1991 was arrested Tuesday after escaping from a halfway house two weeks ago.
John D. Connor served only seven months in jail when a judge who believed in him decided to give him a chance. She released him from jail and sent him to a halfway house, ordering him to complete a program of substance abuse treatment and vocational training.Salt Lake police detectives criticized the sentence, saying Connor's murder was particularly cold-blooded. They once considered him a candidate for the death penalty.
But Judge Leslie Lewis and others saw more potential in the teen. Even after he walked away from Odyssey House last year, Lewis returned him there instead of sending him to prison.
Now, Connor's chances may have run out.
Connor left the halfway house about two weeks ago. Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms broke into a West Salt Lake home Tuesday afternoon and arrested Connor without incident. Connor was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail, where he is being held without bail.
Connor, now 18, was 15 when he shot 17-year-old Roy Dunsmore while target shooting with another teenager in a Rose Park field May 12, 1991. Connor was angry at Dunsmore from a previous fight when he decided to turn the gun on him.
After shooting him once, Connor went back to a car and reloaded the .22-caliber pistol. He returned to Dunsmore, who was lying on the ground making "gurgling sounds. John said that really bothered him, so he fired some more," said Salt Lake police detective Charles Oliver.
Dunsmore was shot seven times near his right eye socket, once behind his right ear and once in the chest.
Connor pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to a year in jail and 36 months' probation. "I believe there's more in you than violence. It's up to you to bring it out," the judge told him.
His defense attorney, Andrew Valdez, said Lewis was able to see beyond the brutal circumstances of the crime and see Connor's difficult past. His biological mother is schizophrenic, court records state. Connor was adopted by alcoholic parents with criminal histories, including child abuse and attempted murder.
A woman who was his foster mother for three months had sex with him and may have been pregnant with his child at one time, according to court testimony.
Month after month, Lewis met with Connor every other week and checked on his progress. He'd been ordered to read a book every month and obtain his high school diploma, among other requirements. By many accounts, Connor had been progressing well.
Valdez said the "courageous and compassionate" sentence gave Connor a chance he'd never been given before. "He's probably accomplished more in the last 18 months than in all the previous 16 years of his life," Valdez said in 1992.
But detectives who investigated the murder recommended prison time and said a year in jail and a few book reports was a light sentence for such a killing. "That's not sending out the right message," Oliver said.
And a teen who was with Connor when Connor shot his friend was locked up 18 months in Youth Corrections facilities - much longer than Connor served in jail. "And he didn't fire a shot," Oliver added.