A suspect in the shooting of a Woods Cross motel clerk pleaded not guilty Tuesday in 2nd District Court to two charges that he had sex with a 14-year-old girl days after the slaying.
Scott J. Johnson, 18, Bountiful, is charged with sodomy upon a child, a first-degree felony, and sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony, in the Nov. 4 incident.The victim reported the incident to police after she saw Johnson's picture after his arrest in the Oct. 29 robbery of the Woods Cross Motel 6. Clerk Matthew John Whicker was shot and killed during the robbery, which police say netted less than $500.
Johnson and his co-defendant, Scott Rettenberger, face aggravated murder and aggravated robbery charges from the motel in-ci-dent.
Rettenberger, along with four other men, is also charged with entering a 20-year-old jail inmate's room March 11, stripping off the victim's clothing and jumping on him.
Investigators believe the incident was a sort of initiation. The five inmates are charged with aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony, and forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony.
Disposition of the new charges against Rettenberger and Johnson will wait until their homicide and robbery case is resolved. Judge Jon Memmott is expected to rule on a motion by Rettenberger to have his videotaped confession suppressed as evidence at their trial.
Memmott is expected to rule next month, and the trial is scheduled for mid-August.