CEDAR CITY — Two 17-year-old boys will be tried as adults in the beating death of a Cedar City counselor for troubled teens.
Sean Graham and Jesse Simmons are each charged with one count of aggravated murder, a capital offense, for allegedly killing Anson Arnett by striking him in the head at least twice with a baseball bat.
Arnett, a 31-year-old counselor for Maximum Life Skills Academy, was attacked about 10 p.m. Monday. He died Tuesday night after being flown to LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City in extremely critical condition.
The teens were arrested late Tuesday in Las Vegas at an apartment complex and are awaiting an extradition hearing. Las Vegas Metro Police also recovered a 2002 Dodge van that was stolen from the residential youth treatment facility licensed in Utah.
Charges against the two teens were filed in Cedar City's 5th District Court Wednesday afternoon. If convicted of aggravated murder, the teens could face the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
Graham and Simmons are accused of beating Arnett unconscious, stuffing him upside down inside a closet and then locking the door before taking several items from the home, including keys to a company van.
Cedar City Police Lt. David Holm said investigators are still trying to determine why it took 1 1/2 hours before someone called for help.
"I think the other boys in the home were frightened," said Holm. "They ran quite a long distance to the director's home to tell him what happened, but he wasn't there. So, they ran to another counselor's home, and he called it in."
Police arrived just after 11:30 p.m. Monday and discovered Arnett, who was immediately taken to a Cedar City hospital and then flown to LDS Hospital. By then the teens were missing, along with the company van, and an alert was issued for them.
Four other boys were enrolled at the youth facility and all have been interviewed and relocated, he added. Two of the boys were asleep at the time of the attack.
The phone lines to the house were cut and several items, including a TV and a small strongbox with prescription medication inside, were missing, said Holm.
In addition to aggravated murder, the teens are charged with aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony, and theft of an operable motor vehicle, a second-degree felony. They also face one count of theft, a class A misdemeanor.
The aggravated kidnapping charge reflects the act of forcibly taking a seriously wounded Arnett and locking him in a closet, said Iron County Attorney Scott Garrett, who filed the charges.
Maximum Life Skills Academy is licensed to care for up to 11 youths at a time, said owner Adam Ah Quin. No complaints have been filed against the company since it opened in May 2002. Arnett had only worked at the youth facility for less than six months, said Ah Quin, although his resume included previous work with troubled teens enrolled in other programs.
E-mail: nperkins@infowest.com