BRIGHAM CITY — Hands shackled in front of him and dressed in a jailhouse jump suit, Glenn Howard Griffin listened Wednesday afternoon as a judge officially sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Griffin, 51, was convicted of capital homicide for the 1984 cold case murder of Bradley Newell Perry. During sentencing proceedings in November, the jury also had the option of sentencing Griffin to death or life with parole.
On Wednesday, 1st District Judge Ben Hadfield signed the order in court, making Griffin's life sentence official.
The hearing lasted only a few minutes. Members of both Perry's and Griffin's families were present for the sentencing. Griffin did not address the court.
Outside the courtroom, Perry's mother, father and two sisters said they weren't expecting Griffin to say anything. To this day, they say they have not heard any apology from him.
"We have never seen him show any remorse," said Perry's father, Newell Perry.
"None of us believe he is remorseful. He has never shown it at all to us," said Perry's sister, Valerie Perry Odenthal.
Brad Perry had just turned 22 when he was killed while working at the family gas station in 1984. The case went cold for many years until advances in forensic technology were able to link two people to the crime. Griffin's trial was the first.
While the Perrys feel Griffin has shown no remorse, they have nothing but sympathy for his family and his foster mother, Arlene Pyle, who adopted Glenn when he was 3 months old.
Over the past two decades, the Perrys and Pyle have become close. Outside the courtroom following Wednesday's sentencing, Claudia Perry, Brad's mother, and Pyle hugged as Perry tried to console her. Pyle told Perry she had a present she wanted to give her in private after the media had gone.
Pyle wiped away tears inside the courtroom and cried again in the hallway. She did not want to comment about her son's sentencing. Rather, she tearfully thanked the Perrys.
"I appreciate the way the Perrys have treated us. Thy Perry family has been very good to us," she said. "The Perrys have been extremely good to me ... "
The Perrys said the trial and sentencing have been hard on both families. On the first day of the trial, Pyle told the Perrys that she knew her son was guilty, said Newell Perry.
"She said, 'I know he's guilty, I know he's guilty.' She knew from the very beginning," Perry said.
For what Griffin has put his family through, "His mom and family don't deserve that," Claudia Perry said.
For the Perrys, the events of the trial and sentencing were hard, because for most of them it was the first time they saw pictures of the crime scene and learned in detail how much Brad suffered.
"I didn't realize they tied him up and tortured him to death," said Claudia Perry with tears in her eyes.
Hearing witness after witness describe essentially the same thing over and over during the trial was "horrific," the Perry family said.
Although cash was missing from the gas station's till, the motive behind the actual slaying may never be known. The Perrys say each of them have their own theories. However, they said it was telling when, during the pretrial meetings, Griffin had at least two angry outbursts.
Contrary to the image he portrayed to jurors of being quiet and reserved and sitting through the entire proceedings barely saying a word, the Perrys said they saw a glimpse of what they believed was Griffin's true character during pretrial.
Furthermore, they said his facial expressions and reactions in court were not from a man who was remorseful. After his sentence was read to him in November, "he smiled as if he had cared less," noted sister Nanette Perry Wharton.
The Perrys say "closure" is not a word they can use because their son cannot be brought back. They also are bracing for yet another trial and an appeal in Griffin's case, which defense attorney Randy Richards said he was working on filing.
Wade Garrett Maughan, 53, also has been charged with capital murder in this case. A preliminary hearing has been set for Jan. 27-29. The Perrys say Maughan already has confessed to his part in the crime, and they wish he would spare everyone a trial by pleading guilty.
"It would be nice to be done," Odenthal said.
The Perrys said they hoped their case — which had gone cold for more than two decades — would help other families to never give up hope.
"There's a lot of families that have been hurt. They don't have justice yet," Odenthal said.
E-mail: preavy@desnews.com