Two mothers on two sides of a courtroom burst into tears Thursday after 3rd District Judge Robin Reese announced an eight-member jury had found Dan L. Petersen not guilty of killing 14-year-old Tiffany Hambleton.
"I can't believe it! I can't believe it!" a distraught Vicki English, the girl's mother, said over and over as she left the courtroom with her weeping family.
"I just wish there were closure," said a tearful Mary Delaney, the girl's aunt.
Meanwhile, Beverly Parker, Petersen's mother, wept for joy, stating she always knew her son was innocent and that police and prosecutors had made a big mistake suspecting her son could murder anyone.
"They were just wrong," Parker said. "We've been praying and praying about this."
Parker also said she believes the killer who actually took the girl's life in 1986 is still at large, and she grieves for Tiffany and the Hambleton family. "These people are innocent victims, too."
The jury deliberated about 4 1/2 hours following a three-day trial.
Petersen, 44, has been in the Salt Lake County Jail on $1 million cash-only bail since his arrest in January on a first-degree felony murder charge. He was to be released from custody late Thursday.
Hambleton attended a concert Feb. 17, 1986, and her mother never heard from her again. The girl's partially clad body was found in a ditch near 1100 South and 3400 West on March 31 of that year. She had been stabbed more than 15 times.
Petersen said he invited Hambleton and her friends at the concert to join him and his friends at his place for a post-concert party. He and Hambleton engaged in sexual activity and then he agreed to take her home at 4 a.m., but his truck ran out of gas near 3900 South and State Street. He wanted them to sleep in the truck, Petersen said, but Hambleton took off walking to get home. He said he slept in the truck to keep it from being stolen and walked home the next day, returning later with other men to gas up the vehicle. He has always denied killing her.
Three male jurors, who declined to give their names, agreed to meet with reporters after the trial.
All said they essentially were convinced there was reasonable doubt that Petersen killed the girl, although there was plenty of evidence he had had sexual contact with her and had lied about that to police for years.
"The DNA evidence was strong, but it was DNA evidence of sex but not DNA evidence of murder," one man said.
"His DNA on the blouse (the girl wore) isn't enough to convict him of murder," another man said. "Maybe it could convict him of stupidity and a sexual event, but not murder."
Generally, defendants in criminal cases do not take the witness stand, but Petersen did and he admitted he had sex with the underage girl and lied to protect himself, but he denied killing her.
However, all three jurors said his testimony and demeanor were not particularly convincing, and one said his words seemed rehearsed. His testimony did not affect their decision.
These sentiments were shared by alternate juror Matt Herrmann, who was relieved of jury duty with another alternate juror before deliberations began.
Herrmann said he would have gone with a not guilty verdict, too.
Herrmann said he was not influenced at all by an error by a DNA expert who first said there was evidence of another man's DNA under the girl's fingernails, then later said those findings were inconclusive. Herrmann suggested it was simply a honest mistake and that did not change his mind. Instead, all the evidence just did not add up to Petersen committing the murder.
Herrmann was particularly struck by defense attorney Randall Skeen's closing statement that the state's case was like a piece of worn and oft-repaired kite string cobbled together to try to make a rope.
"I thought that was a really good analogy. Yes, there was something there, something happened, but it falls back to reasonable doubt," Herrmann said. "You need to be absolutely sure if you convict a guy and I couldn't feel comfortable convicting him based on what I had seen."
Herrmann acknowledged that prosecutors faced quite a challenge working a 21-year-old cold case when people's memories have faded and investigative techniques two decades ago were different than they are now.
"Both sides did a pretty good job presenting what they had. It's just that the state couldn't tie it all together."
E-mail: lindat@desnews.com