An Idaho woman's dining and dancing trip to Salt Lake City in July ended in terror when a man stuck a gun in her ribs outside a downtown night club, pushed her into her parked car and ordered her to drive away.
Rex T. Matthews, 31, East Central City, was convicted by a 3rd District Court jury Tuesday of kidnapping in the July 26 incident. The jury deliberated for about an hour after a two-day trial.The jury convicted Matthews of kidnapping, a second-degree felony that carries a prison term of one to 15 years. They also found him guilty of using a firearm in the crime, which may add another five years onto his prison sentence.
Matthews went to trial after Judge Timothy R. Hanson turned down a proposed plea agreement last week. Matthews was prepared to plead guilty to the kidnapping charge if prosecutors dropped the firearm enhancement charge.
Hanson rejected the agreement, saying the firearm enhancement was too important and the case too serious to bargain it away.
Shellie Anne Shelton, Ammon, Idaho, related how Matthews stepped up behind her as she left the Vortex Club on Exchange Place just off State Street in downtown Salt Lake early in the morning of July 26.
Matthews stuck a gun in her ribs, Shelton testified, then asked her, "Do you know what this is?"
He grabbed her blouse from behind, Shelton testified, tearing it as he pushed her into her parked car, ordering her to shut up, get out her car keys and "drive, just start driving."
Just then Shelton's friend, Norma Jean Oliver, came up to the car and interrupted the kidnapping, yelling at Matthews to leave Shelton alone and get out of the car, Oliver testified.
Shelton took the opportunity to leap out of the car, screaming for the police. Matthews also jumped out of the car and began running, Oliver testified. Michael Rowan, whom Oliver met in the club that night, began chasing Matthews and grabbed him about 100 feet away.
Rowan testified he hadn't seen a gun on Matthews during the chase but as they struggled, a handgun fell to the pavement. He kicked it out of the way, Rowan testified, and restrained Matthews until security guards from the club arrived and took him into custody.
Defense attorney Bruce Oliver argued that the brief time period Shelton was under Matthews' control doesn't legally constitute a kidnapping but should be an illegal detention, a lesser crime.
The gun wasn't loaded and couldn't fire, so it was not a deadly weapon, Oliver argued, urging the jury to reject the firearm enhancement.
But prosecutor Richard Hamp argued that Matthews deliberately called Shelton's attention to the gun, ordered her into her car, and then ordered her to begin driving.
"Any time you have a gun in your rib cage, that's a substantial period of time," he told the jury, saying it shows Matthews' intent and meets the law's definition of a kidnapping.
Shelton didn't know the gun wasn't loaded, Hamp told the jury, so in her mind it was a deadly weapon. The fact that it turned out to be unusable doesn't relieve Matthews of the responsibility for what he did, Hamp said.
Hanson set sentencing for Jan. 9.