A Millcreek man accused in the February stabbing death of a Kearns resident will stand trial on murder and tampering with evidence charges, a district judge ruled Wednesday.
Jimmy Dean Meinhard, who turns 50 Saturday, said nothing as 3rd District Judge John A. Rokich found probable cause to bind the construction worker over in connection with the knife slaying of Ronald Reed Peterson.Prosecutors charged Meinhard with murder, a first-degree felony, and tampering with evidence, a second-degree felony, in the Feb. 25 incident.
Peterson's body was found four days later at the base of the Oquirrh Mountains in Tooele County by horseback riders.
Investigators say Meinhard stabbed the 38-year-old Peterson in his car after becoming upset over the alleged theft of a set of tools.
Deputy Tooele County Attorney Alan Jeppesen also said the killing was a crime of passion, noting Peterson and Meinhard's wife had been having sexual relations, which Meinhard had apparently condoned.
"We have other evidence that we will present at trial from a girlfriend and (Meinhard's) wife that something else was going on," Jeppesen said Wednesday after the two-day preliminary hearing.
Larry Thomas Taylor, a former roommate, testified Tuesday against Meinhard. In exchange for the testimony, and after he agreed to plead guilty to an evidence tampering charge, prosecutors dropped a murder charge against Taylor.
Taylor, 52, said he went with Meinhard to Tooele to talk with Peterson, where they knew the Kearns man would be visiting a girlfriend.
Once at the home, Peterson and Meinhard drove off together in Peterson's car, and Taylor followed.
Taylor said Peterson and Meinhard drove to a remote part of the county along U-73, and at one point Taylor pulled ahead of the two. Taylor moved farther ahead of the car and lost sight of them after a couple of miles, he said.
When Peterson and Meinhard failed to show up, Taylor turned his car around and drove back until he spotted Peterson's vehicle, which was at the side of the road.
As Taylor approached, Meinhard rolled down his window.
" `Well, I did him. Follow me,' " Taylor testified that Meinhard told him. "I was shocked. I didn't know what to say."
He said he didn't know of Meinhard's plan to kill Peterson, saying he believed Meinhard was just going to beat him up.
Peterson's car was found a few miles away from the body near the Utah County line. Taylor admitted he returned with Meinhard to clean up the car a couple days after Peterson's death.
Tooele County sheriff's detective William Ericson testified Peterson suffered multiple stab wounds: four to the chest, one in the stomach, two in the back, one in the hand and one in the face.
Defense attorney David Angerhofer filed a motion to dismiss the case, saying the state had not determined that probable cause existed or that his client had committed any crime.
"There is no evidence of what the victim died from," he said. "There is no evidence from the medical examiner as to the cause of death. We don't know whether this was desecration of a body or a murder."
Angerhofer also challenged Taylor's testimony, saying the man was an unreliable witness and highly impressionable.
Jeppesen entered photographs from the crime scene as exhibits that show footprints in the snow near the body. Jeppesen said the footprints appear to match a set of boots recovered by police from Meinhard's Salt Lake County residence.
Meinhard remains in the Central Utah Correctional Facility and will be arraigned Monday before 3rd District Court Judge Leon A. Dever in Tooele.