FARMINGTON — Prosecutors once again are pointing to Edward Lewis Owens, 58, as the man who throttled a desperately struggling Karin Strom in her Woods Cross home 28 years ago, leaving the young woman dead by the side of her bed.
But defense attorneys insist Owens is an innocent man and the victim of an incomplete and poorly done investigation that could easily have shown someone else committed the crime.
Opening statements began Tuesday in Owens' trial that is set to run through April 3. He is charged with first-degree felony murder in Strom's 1980 death. He previously was charged with the same crime and was set to go to trial, but prosecutors then asked a judge to dismiss the case in 2007. Charges were refiled eight months later.
Prosecutors are convinced that DNA evidence under the fingernails of Strom's left hand shows DNA from Owens' skin and, from her right hand, material that possibly is semen from Owens. There also were two drops of blood on her underwear that hold DNA from Owens, according to prosecutors.
"It's important to note that the skin under her left fingernails was part of the great struggle she put up to save her life," prosecutor William McGuire told a six-man, four-woman jury. In addition, Owens showed up for work the day after the June 6, 1980, slaying with a large gouge under his right eye, which would indicate a fight.
"On his hands, there were injuries where Karin Strom was trying to get those hands off her throat," McGuire said.
The prosecutor also suggested Owens' conduct was suspicious after learning the case had been reopened in 2006. McGuire said after a police officer contacted Owens, who was in Virginia, about the renewed investigation, Owens began to take money out of the bank, left a note for his wife saying essentially that he was disappearing, and went to Texas and then Mexico.
"He knew what DNA was," McGuire said. "He knew that might implicate him."
McGuire also outlined efforts by Karin Strom's then-estranged husband, Steve Strom, who at one time had been charged with her murder, but those charges were dropped. McGuire said Strom wrote to President Bill Clinton in 1995 asking for an independent investigation into his wife's death.
Steve Strom, who now lives in Nevada, also came to Utah to talk to a law enforcement official about re-examining Karin Strom's death, after he heard of a different cold case that had been solved through improved DNA testing.
However, defense attorney Michael Studebaker said DNA evidence showed the presence of two other "low-grade" donors under Karin Strom's fingernails that did not come from Owens or Steve Strom. Studebaker said the state made no effort to identify the other two people whose DNA that was.
Studebaker suggested Steve Strom possessed a greater motive for killing his wife, since he "had a tendency to be violent," was in the process of a divorce and had his name removed from her life-insurance policy.
Testing by the Weber State Crime Lab years ago showed that Owens' blood was not on Karin Strom's underwear. Studebaker also listed several pieces of evidence from the crime scene that were never tested.
As for Owens, he was drinking in a bar at the time of the slaying, Studebaker said, and later showed up at his workplace, where he got sick. The cut under his eye came from a defective gun-shell-reloading machine. And Owens went to Texas to see a friend and into a Mexican border town to have a good time because he knew he would be facing a possible murder charge in Utah, for which he voluntarily surrendered, Studebaker said.
Owens made it clear to his family that he would be back, according to the defense attorney.
DNA evidence is useful, but the mere presence of DNA doesn't mean that one person killed another, Studebaker said.
"If I got outside and spit a piece of gum in the parking lot and someone is killed there tonight, I did not kill that person," Studebaker said. "There is not enough evidence to convict Ed Owens of murder."
E-mail: lindat@desnews.com