Wednesday's deadly confrontation with a teenage store clerk wasn't Donald Moyes' first encounter with trouble.
Prison officials were starting the process to revoke his parole because he failed drug tests and didn't report to his parole officer."We were on the verge of pulling him in," said Jack Ford, corrections spokesman. To revoke a person's parole, corrections officials must ask the Board of Pardons and Parole to issue a warrant. Ford said they were starting that process, but some of the delay can be attributed to burgeoning case loads.
Moyes was killed Monday after confronting 17-year-old Nate Nusz, who was stocking shelves at Smith's Food and Drug, 3171 E. 3300 South. Investigators say Moyes ordered him to open the cash registers, but the teen could not do it because the registers were locked.
The man became angry, fired a shot into the ceiling and then shot Nusz twice in the chest and abdomen. Injured, the teen managed to wrest the gun away from the robber and then shot him in the back, killing him.
Nusz remained hospitalized Friday in fair condition.
Ford said Moyes' parole agent had been looking for him for weeks but was unable to locate him. Apparently, Moyes was arrested in Woods Cross on a felony charge on Feb. 23, but he was allowed to post $5,000 bail.
Randy Minson, administrative assistant to the Davis County sheriff, said jailers didn't hold him because they didn't know he was on parole. All county jails have computer access to a list of all people in the custody and under the supervision of the Department of Corrections, which is about 10,000 people.
Minson said jail officers ran Moyes' name, but it wasn't on the list. Ford said Moyes has been on the list since Dec. 3, 1986, when he was placed on probation for a robbery charge.
"We're not trying to point the finger," Ford said, but added that the department planned on sending the woman who trains people on the computer system to Davis County to see what went wrong.