A 3rd District Judge is mulling over a motion to dismiss murder charges against two men accused in the beating death of a Grantsville man in June.
At the conclusion of a preliminary hearing Wednesday, Judge John Rokich said he would review a memorandum filed by defense attorneys before deciding whether Dustin Patrick Raymond, 20, Stansbury Park, and Joseph Phillip Roth, 18, Hooper, Weber County, should stand trial in the death of Justin Cash Jones, 23.Both Raymond and Roth are charged with murder, a first-degree felony. Rokich set a hearing for Aug. 26 to give defense attorneys an opportunity to argue the motion.
A third man also charged with murder, Paul Medina, 18, Tooele, was bound over for trial last month. He has been released from the Tooele County Detention Facility on $75,000 bail. No new hearing date has been set for him.
Raymond and Roth are also out on $20,000 bail each, said Tooele County Deputy District Attorney Alan Jeppesen. Similar charges against Joshua Glen Bolinder, 18, were dismissed last month.
During the hearing, Raymond testified that on June 26, he and several other friends, including Medina and Roth, met at an area known as the Old Girl Scouts Camp in Middle Canyon, eastern Tooele County. The group was having a campfire and drinking when Jones approached them and asked them for gasoline.
"He was drunk from the get go," Raymond said. Jones appeared to be stumbling and slurring his words, he said.
Raymond and friends told Jones that they could not spare gas from their vehicles and Jones left. But about an hour later, Jones drove his truck at 25 to 35 mph through the area where Raymond and his friends were having the campfire, according to witnesses.
Apparently somebody threw an object at Jones truck. Jones drove through a creek, stopped the truck and got out. Then he began to run toward the campfire.
Bolinder testified Jones stumbled while climbing up the creek toward the campfire and picked up a rock with his right hand. Then Jones crossed the campfire and went directly to Raymond, he said.
"He was cussing, saying he wanted to fight," Bolinder said.
Jones pushed Raymond, causing Raymond to fall backward. That's when Bolinder stepped between Jones and Raymond to prevent further confrontation.
While Jones continued to scream with his hand raised in a threatening manner, Medina struck Jones in head with a flashlight, causing Jones to fall to the ground on his hands and knees, Bolinder said.
Raymond said he did not see Medina hitting Jones because he had fallen behind a truck parked at the site. But after pulling himself up, he went up to Jones and kicked him in the face.
"As far as I knew, he and I were engaged in a confrontation," Raymond said. However, he said he hit Jones with his ankle joint and not with his shoe. "I could have kicked a lot harder than I did, I know that."
Another witness, Steven Paul Rash, said he also saw Roth step up and kick Jones once in the face.
Jones, who was bleeding from the back of his head, was not able to get up. His friends, who were also having a campfire nearby, came to help him, Rash said.
"It looked pretty bad from what I saw," Rash said.
Jones died three days later at University Hospital. An autopsy revealed he died as a result of severe cranial and cerebral injuries, said Dr. Todd Grey, chief medical examiner. Toxicology reports did not indicate Jones had any alcohol or drugs in his system, he said.