PROVO — The media no longer can take pictures of double-murder defendant Seth Rollins Broomhead during pretrial hearings, based on an agreement between the prosecution and the defense team.
Fourth District Court Judge Steven Hansen agreed to the stipulation Monday after ruling Nov. 3 that Broomhead cannot wear civilian clothes to pretrial hearings.
Defendants wear regular clothes at trial to avoid prejudicing the jury, but no jury is present during pretrial hearings.
However, Broomhead's attorney, Tom Means, is worried the potential pool of jurors could be contaminated by news photographs. Utah law allows judges to permit still photography in courtrooms.
"They don't want his picture in the paper for potential jurors to see him in his jail clothes and shackles," prosecutor Sherry Ragan said. "During pretrial hearings, he'll be in jail clothes and shackles, but we've asked the judge not to allow photographs so no potential jurors will think he's a bad guy just because he's in custody."
Ragan agreed to the arrangement as a precaution against an appeal.
"With a capital case, you try to be especially careful," she said. "We want a fair jury, too."
Broomhead appeared in court Monday the way nearly every jail inmate does, wearing a Utah County Jail jumpsuit with handcuffs around his wrists and shackles about his ankles.
However, he also wore black sheathes on each hand. The sheathes looked like golf-club covers. The bags prevent escape attempts by keeping an inmate's fingers from grabbing at keys or anything else during transport to and from the jail and while at the courthouse.
The bags are an indication that Broomhead is considered an escape risk, which was confirmed by two sources.
Hansen ruled that potential jurors could be questioned before a trial about any possible lingering effects from published photographs and that, therefore, Broomhead is not constitutionally entitled to dress in civilian clothing at pretrial hearings.
News organizations in Utah are required to file written requests to photograph court hearings. Generally, judges in the 4th District permit a single still photographer into the courtroom. That photographer must act as a "pool" photographer, distributing images to other interested newspapers and television news stations that request them.
Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Cannon said he could not comment on specifics about Broomhead's security status. He said no one has escaped from inside the Utah County Jail and that deputies generally make special transportation arrangements for those inmates considered security risks.
Broomhead, who is being held without bail, was flanked in the courtroom Monday by two uniformed, armed deputies.
At trial, defendants are accompanied by guards who wear civilian clothes and carry concealed weapons.
If Broomhead's case, which includes two charges of capital murder in the Orem shooting deaths of Maritza Aguilar and Pablo Montoya on June 13, 2003, proceeds to trial, his table in the courtroom would be surrounded by a skirt so jurors wouldn't see shackles on his ankles.
He would not wear handcuffs during the trial.
In another development in the case, defense attorneys continued their attempts to suppress alleged confessions made by Broomhead.
They turned over to prosecutors an evaluation from a defense expert, Columbia University psychologist Xavier Amadore, who examined Broomhead three times.
Neither defense attorney Tom Means nor Ragan had read the evaluation, which arrived just before the hearing.
"We're making a motion to suppress his statements," Means said of Broomhead's apparent confession on Oct. 15, 2003. "His state of mind at the time is relevant to our motion, and the evaluation is about his state of mind when he made those statements."
Hansen did not set a new date for a suppression hearing.
"The defense wants the judge to rule whether (Broomhead) voluntarily waived his Miranda rights," prosecutor Tim Taylor said. "Their evaluation is looking at whether there were some psychological problems that would have affected his ability to do that."
A trial on the charges is set for May. The delayed suppression hearing, which has been anticipated since Broomhead pleaded not guilty in May, isn't expected to delay the trial.
"The victims' families want to keep that date," Ragan said.
E-mail: twalch@desnews.com