The April trial of Tonya Vosburgh on murder and arson charges will go ahead as scheduled, a 2nd District judge ordered Tuesday in a pre-trial hearing.
Tonya Vosburgh, along with her husband, Rick, are charged with setting a fire in the garage of their Layton home three years ago that killed Bobbi Jo Womack, 18, a physically and mentally handicapped girl they were trying to adopt.Prosecutors charge the girl was killed for a $100,000 life insurance policy the Vosburghs bought for her, plus to get access to a $150,000 to $170,000 trust fund the girl had.
Tonya and Rick Vosburgh have both pleaded not guilty to first-degree felony charges of homicide and aggravated arson, along with insurance fraud, a second-degree felony, in the March 3, 1993, incident.
Rick Vosburgh has agreed to testify against his wife and did so in a December preliminary hearing, in a plea agreement with prosecutors. Although not finalized, Rick Vosburgh will apparently plead guilty to the insurance fraud charge and the two first-degree felony counts will be dismissed.
Defense attorney Robert Booker called the estranged husband's testimony "the wild card" after Tuesday's pretrial hearing before Judge Rodney S. Page.
"Rick is still the wild card in all this. I'm not sure what he will testify to," Booker said. "He's changed his story several times, from what he said in the preliminary hearing to now, he's less and less accusing of himself each time he tells it.
"At the preliminary hearing, his testimony was that the fire was accidental. We'll see what he says now," Booker said.
Booker said he is preparing motions to have a private polygraph test that Rick Vosburgh commissioned be ruled as inadmissible and may also challenge his ability to testify against his wife in court.
Prosecutor Carvel Harward told the judge he has a list of 34 witnesses, but some of their testimony overlaps and he will probably call about half of them during the three-day trial.
In addition to challenging the expert witnesses and forensic testimony the prosecution will present, Booker said he intends to call witnesses who will talk about the relationship Tonya Vosburgh had with Womack.
They met when Tonya Vosburgh was working in a group home for the handicapped in Kaysville, where Womack lived after being permanently disabled when she was struck by a van as a child.