LOGAN — Cody Lynn Nielsen will likely take the stand in his capital murder trial early next week, opening the door to a possible flood of unfavorable information about his past.
"It's going to be fairly likely that he's going to testify," defense attorney Shannon Demler said Wednesday afternoon.
Nielsen, 31, is charged with kidnapping and killing 15-year-old Trisha Ann Autry in June 2000.
If Nielsen takes the witness stand, jurors will be allowed to hear the details of a January 2003 jailhouse conversation in which Nielsen allegedly admitted to being with Autry when she died.
First District Judge Clint S. Judkins has previously ruled that the conversation can only be used as evidence if Nielsen testifies on his own behalf.
Nielsen reportedly told a Cache County sheriff's deputy that he engaged in consensual sex with the teen, and her death was the result of an accident.
The alleged admission came just days after Nielsen pleaded guilty to capital murder as part of a deal to spare his life. However, he later withdrew his plea and asked for a jury trial.
Prosecutors will also likely renew their motion to introduce evidence that Nielsen sexually assaulted two other women, one Autry's 15-year-old friend, in the months prior to Autry's disappearance.
According to court documents, both assaults took place at a Cache County wildlife research facility where Nielsen worked at the time as a maintenance man. Investigators found Autry's remains at the facility in May 2001.
The assaults, and an alleged threat to one of the women, are strikingly similar to prosecutors' version of events in Autry's death.
"The facts can only be explained by the defendant's plan to obtain sex, his motive to obtain compliance, and his intent to murder if his plan failed — just as he had (threatened) 10 days earlier," the motion states. "This evidence is relevant beyond question to answer the issue of intent, plan and motive."
Criminal defendants' prior "bad acts" can legally be admitted as evidence if they show motive, opportunity, preparation, planning or knowledge, the motion states.
Nielsen pleaded guilty in 2002 to having unlawful sexual activity with the teenage girl.
Prosecutors on Wednesday agreed to wait until the defense presents its case to decide if they will call the two women to testify. Judkins must still rule on the admissibility of the proposed evidence.
Special prosecutor Scott Wyatt said the women's testimony will be particularly useful if the defense argues Autry's death was an accident, as Nielsen has previously maintained.
Wednesday was a difficult day in court for the Autry family, as search and rescue volunteers discussed recovering the teenage girl's remains and the state medical examiner testified about the condition of those remains.
"This is the most extreme post-mortem dismemberment case that I can think of in my career," Utah Medical Examiner Todd Grey testified.
Grey noted the "remarkably clean" nature of Autry's jawbone, recovered about 10 feet down in the initial dig site at the Millville research facility.
The jawbone was cleaned in some sort of process, Grey said, either chemically, through boiling or meticulous scraping. Marks on the bone show it was cut with an object with a thin, sharp edge either shortly before or after Autry's death, he said.
"From everything that I've seen, this was a very detailed destruction and defleshing of the individual," Grey said.
Four teeth were missing from the jawbone at the time of its recovery. Three were broken out through some type of blunt-force injury to the face, Grey said, and the fourth likely fell out on its own sometime later.
The jawbone was identified as Autry's through 1995 dental records.
Grey also examined several hundred charred bone fragments that were recovered from the facility. He opined the remains were from a female in her teens or early 20s who was between 5-foot-3 and 5-foot-6 inches tall.
Autry was 5-foot-4, her mother testified Wednesday.
Grey could not positively determine the woman's cause of death, nor could he determine a time or date of death.
For the second day in a row, Autry's family members filled nearly an entire side of Judkins' courtroom. Members of Nielsen's family also attend the trial, though in smaller numbers and much less visibly.
Nielsen's older sister said Wednesday she supports her brother and doesn't believe he could have committed the grisly crime with which he's been charged.
"The brother I know would never do something like this," said the woman, who preferred that her name not be used for fear of recrimination against her young daughter. The girl has been harassed in school, the woman said, and has even been called a "murderer" because of the allegations against her uncle.
Nielsen has always been wonderful with his nieces and nephews, the woman said, and they adore him.
Prosecutors are expected to rest their case by the end of this week. The defense will begin presenting its case on Tuesday.
E-mail: awelling@desnews.com